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POTATO FISTS 






II 



BEING AN ILLUSTRATED ACCOUNT OF NIK 

Colorado Potato-Beetle 

AND THE OTHER 

Insect Foes of the Potato in North-America. 




WITH SUGGESTIONS FOR THEIR REPRESSION AND METHODS 
FOR THEIR DESTRUCTION. 



CHARLES V. RILEY, M.A., Ph.D., 

(STATE ENTOMOLOGIST OF MISSOURI.) 



ILLUSTRATED. 

NEW- YORK : 
ORANGE JUDD COMPANY, 




iSZ?? 



''&&& 



245 Broadway. 



-*&£?&& 



NEW AMERICAN FARM BOOK. 

ORIGINALLY BY 

AUTHOR OP " DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS, 1 ' AND FORMERLY EDITOR OF 

THE "AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST." 

REVISED AND ENLARGED BY 

LEWIS E. ALLEIV, 

AUTHOR OF "AMERICAN CATTLE," EDITOR OF THE "AMERICAN SIIORT-nOR 
HERD BOOK," ETC.- 



Introduction. — Tillage Husbandry 
— Grazing — Feeding — Breeding — 
Planting, etc. 

Chapter I. — Soils — Classification — 
Description — Management — Pro- 
perties. 

Chapter II. — Inorganic Manures — 
Mineral — Stone — Earth — Phos- 
phatic. 

Chapter III. — Organic Manures — 
Their Composition — Animal— Ve- 
getable. 

Chapter IV. — Irrigation and Drain- 
ing. 

Chapter V. — Mechanical Divisions 
of Soils — Spading — Plowing— Im- 
plements. 

Chapter VI. — The Grasses — Clovers 
— Meadows — Pastures — Compara- 
tive Values of Grasses— Implements 
for their Cultivation. 

Chapter VII. — Grain, and its Culti- 
vation — Varieties — Growth — Har- 
vesting. 

Chapter VIII.— Leguminous Plants 
— Tne Pea— Bean — English Field 
Bean— Tare or Vetch— Cultivation 
— Harvesting. 

Chapter IX. — Roots and Esculents — 
Varieties — Growth — Cultivation — 
Securing the Crops — Uses — Nutri- 
tive Equivalents ot Different Kinds 
of Forage. 

Chapter X.— Fruits— Apples— Cider 
—Vinegar — Pears— Quinces— Plums 
Peaches — Apricots — Nectarines — 
Smaller Fruits— Planting— Cultiva- 
tion— Gathering— Preserving. 

Chapter XI.— Miscellaneous Objects 
of Cultivation, aside from the Or- 
dinary Farm Crops— Broom-corn— 
Flax— Cotton— Hemp— Sugar Cane 
Sorghum— Maple Sugar -Tobacco- 
Indigo— Madder— Wood— Sumach- 
Teasel — Mustard — Hops — Castor 
Bean. 

Chapter XII.— Aids and Objects of 
Agriculture — Rotation of Crops, 
and their Effects— Weeds— Restora- 



tion of Worn-out Soils — Fertilizing 
Barren Lands — Utility of Birds — 
Fences — Hedges — Farm Roads — 
Shade Trees— vVood Lands— Time 
of Cutting Timber — Tool?— Agri- 
cultural Education cf the Farmer. 

Chapter XIII. — Farm Buildings — 
House — Barn — Sheds — Cisterns — 
Variou i other Outbuildings— Steam- 
ing Apparatus. 

Chapter XIV.— Domestic Animals 
— Breeding — Anatomy— Respiration 
— Consumption of Food. 

Chapter XV.— Neat or Horned Cattle 
Devons — Hereto ids — Ayreshires — 
Galloways — Short -horns — Alder- 
neys or Jerseys — Dutch or Holstein 
— Management from Birth to Milk- 
ing, Labor, or Slaughter. 

Chapter XVI.— The Dairy- Milk- 
Butter — Cheese — Different Kinds- 
Manner of Working. 

Chapter XVII. — Sheep — Merino- 
Saxon— South Down — The Long- 
wooled Breeds — Cotswold— Lincoln 
— Breeding — Management — Shep- 
herd Dogs. 

Chapter XVIII. —The Horse— De- 
scription of Different Breeds— Their 
Various Uses — Breeding — Manage- 
ment. 

Chapter XIX. — The Ass— Mule — 
Comparative Labor of Working 
Animals. 

Chapter XX. — Swine — Different 
Breeds — Breeding — Rearing — Fat- 
tening — Curing Pork and Hairs. 

Chapter XXI. — Poultry — Hi ns, or 
Barn-door Fowl i — Turkey — Pea- 
cock — Guinea Hen — Goose — Duck 
— Honey Bees. 

Chapter XXII. — Diseases of Ani- 
mals—What Authority Sl.all We 
Adopt ? — Sheep — Swine — Treat- 
ment and Breeding of Horses. 

Chapter XXIII.— Conclusion— Gerc- 
ral Remarks — The Fanner who 
Lives by his Occupation — The Ama- 
teur Farmer — Sundry Useful Tables. 



SENT POST-PAID, PEICE $2.50. 

ORANGE JUDD & CO., 

245 Broadway, New-York. 



POTATO PESTS. 



BEING AN ILLUSTRATED ACCOUNT OF THE 



Colorado Potato-beetle 



AND THE OTHER 



Insect Foes of the Potato in North America. 

WITH SUGGESTIONS FOR THEIR REPRESSION AND METHODS 
FOR THEIR DESTRUCTION. 




BY 

CHARLES V. RILEY, M. A., PH. D. 

(STATE ENTOMOLOGIST OP MISSOUEI.) 



f 



\ 



1° 



/ 



ILLUSTRATED. 





NEW YORK: 

ORANGE JUDD COMPANY, 

245 BROADWAY. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by the 
ORANGE JUDD COMPANY, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



*»* 






TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Preface 7 

Introduction 9 

The Colorado Potato-beetle 11 

Its Past History 11 

Prediction that it would reach the Atlantic, 12. — Its March 
across the Country, 13. — It reaches the Atlantic, 14.— Its 
swarming in large Cities, 16. — Its Occurrence out at Sea, 17. 

The InsecVs Native Home 17 

When it first attacked the Potato, 18. 

Bate at which it traveled 21 

How it traveled 21 

Mostly in the beetle state, 21. — Assisted by Man, 21. — 
Tendency to migrate in Swarms, 23. 
It spreads but does not travel in the Sense of leaving one District for 

another 23 

Area invaded by It 24 

Causes which limit its Spread 25 

Intense Heat in the South, 25. — Excessive Dryness in the 
Mountains, 26. 

How it affected the Price of Potatoes 26 

The Modification It has undergone 27 

Its Natural History 27 

First made known in 1863, 28. — The Female capable of laying 
1,000 eggs, 29.— Three Broods a Year, 28. 

Its Poisonous Qualities 29 

Exhalations from the crushed Bodies injurious, 29. 

Its Food Hants 30 

The Number increases with each Year, 32.— Varieties of Po- 
tatoes preferred, 33. 

The Beetle eats as well as the Larva 33 

Its Natural Enemies 34 

Birds which feed upon It, 35, 36.— Domestic Fowls, 36.— 
Reptiles, 36.— Spiders and Mites, 36, 37, 38.— True Insects, 
39.— Rust-red Social-wasp, 40.— Lady-birds, 40-43.— Ground- 
beetles, 44, 45— Rove-beetles, 46.— Blister-beetles, 46.— Sol- 
dier-bugs, 47-51.— Tachina-fly, 52.— Asilus-flies, 53. 
5 



6 CONTENTS. 

Remedies , 54 

Encouragement of natural Enemies, 51. — Preventive Meas- 
ures, 54. — Mechanical Means of Destruction, 55. — Pincers 
for, 56.— Machines for collecting, 58, 59.— Sun-scalding, 56. 
— Horse-machine, 57. — Poisonous Applications to the Plant, 
60. — Paris Green, 61. — Different Modes of using Paris Green, 
62-65.— Other poisonous Applications tested, 66.— Patent 
Poisons, 68. 

The Use of Paris Green 69 

Its Influence on the Plant, 70— Its Influence on the Soil, 71. 
— Its Influence on Man indirectly through the Soil or through 
the Plant, 74, 

Bogus Experiments 75 

Alarm about tlie Insect Abroad 76 

Unnecessary Prohibition of Traffic in American Potatoes, 
77.— How the Insect will most likely get to Europe, 78. — 
The Chances of Its getting there, 79-82. — Could it become 
acclimated there ? 82. 

Nomenclature -. 83 

The Bogus Colorado Potato-beetle 85 

It has always existed East of the Mississippi, 85. — It never 
attacks the cultivated Potato, 85. — Easily confounded with 
its potato-feeding Congener, 86. — How the two differ, 86-88. 

OTHER INSECT FOES OF THE POTATO. 

The Stalk-borer 90 

Habits, 90.— Remedy, 91. 

The Potato Stalk- weevil 92 

Habits, 92.— Remedy, 93. 

The Potato or Tomato- worm 93 

Habits, 94.— Remedies, 95.— Parasites, 96. 

Blister-beetles 96 

The Striped Blister-beetle 97 

The Ash-gray Blister-beetle > 98 

The Black-rat Blister-beetle 99 

The Black Blister-beetle 99 

The Margined Blister-beetle 99 

Remedies, 100. 

The Three-lined Potato-beetle 100 

Habits, 101-2.— Remedies, 103. 

The Cucumber Flea-beetle 1° 3 

Habits 103.— Remedies, 103. 

The Clubbed Tortoise-beetle 103 

Habits, 103.— Remedies, 104. 



PEEFACB. 

The Colorado Potato-beetle, to the consideration of 
which the following pages are principally devoted, con- 
tinues to occupy a good deal of public attention ; and 
now that its transportation to Europe has become a de- 
monstrated possibility, demands from Europe for infor- 
mation regarding it are added to those that have been con- 
tinually made by our own people as the insect has widened 
the area of its devastations. The editions of the earlier 
Entomological reports of Missouri have long since been 
exhausted, and the author has, to his regret, been unable 
to satisfy, of late years, the many applications for his 
writings on the subject. ^Fo this circumstance, and to 
the suggestion of the publishers that he should bring 
those writings together in some cheap, available form, 
with brief accounts of the other insects that injuriously 
affect the potato, this little volume owes its origin. The 
figures which illumine it, though they have, many of 
them, become familiar to the agricultural public by fre- 
quent reproduction in the columns of the industrial press, 
were most of them originally drawn from nature by the 
author, and for the text he can claim little more than 
that it is a compilation from his previous writings. With 
the explanation that some of the figures are enlarged, and 
have the natural size indicated only in hair-line ; that the 
(?) 



8 PREFACE. 

term " larva," so frequently employed, means the second 
or worm-like state of an insect ; that the term "pupa" 
means the third or dormant state, and that all statements 
rest either on his own experience, or on authorities cited 
in his reports ; the author submits this little work in the 
hope that it may somewhere find a welcome, and to some 
one prove a source of profit. 

0. V. ElLEY. 

St. Louis, Mo., November 1, 1876. 



INTKODUCTION. 

The Potato ranks deservedly high among the products 
of the farm. A luxury even to the rich, it yet forms the 
poor man's principal article of diet. Easily cultivated ; 
yielding generously ; thriving in most soils ; requiring no 
process of manufacture to fit it for use — it is justly 
esteemed the most valuable of esculents. Whatever, 
therefore, injuriously affects it, excites general apprehen- 
sion, and demands careful consideration. 

The agencies which, at present, militate most seriously 
against successful potato-culture are fungus diseases, and 
noxious insects. It is with the latter that the following 
pages deal, and more particularly with the Colorado Po- 
tato-beetle, which is the most injurious and widespread 
of them. 

Two interesting phenomena invariably accompany the 
settlement by civilized man of a country previously 
unoccupied by him : 1st, the exceptional increase and 
spread of the few indigenous species which exhibit ex- 
ceptional powers of adaptation to the changed conditions 
that such settlement implies ; 2nd, the more general in- 
crease and spread of European species, which have, 
through "natural selection" for centuries, most effectu- 
ally conformed to those conditions, and which, by virtue 
of this greater adaptation crowd out the endemic forms. 
America, Australia, New Zealand, have been overrun by 
European imports, and are good illustrations in point. 
The increase and spread of one species necessitates the 
decrease — often to extermination — of another ; and the 
adaptation of an endemic species to new conditions, as 
also the introduction and spread of a foreign one, imply 
and have often carried with them, modification in habit 
and character. 

(9) 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

Within seventeen years there has been a grand revolu- 
tion in the minds of thinking men as to the origin of 
things upon our earth. The idea of special creation of 
what we call "species," almost universally held prior to 
that time, has given way to that of the derivative origin of 
existing from pre-existing forms. Darwin has revolution- 
ized our ideas, and given to the study of life, broader and 
deeper meaning than it had before ; and there can be no 
better evidence of the change in public opinion, in this 
respect, or of the force of the doctrine of evolution, than 
the respect with which Huxley was recently listened to in 
New York, and the failure of opposers to weaken his argu- 
ments. The "survival of the fittest" aptly expresses 
one of the axioms of evolution, and among the most 
beautiful illustrations of it, and consequently, among the 
more tangible evidences of evolution which man, in pres- 
ent experience, can have ; must be reckoned the visible 
changes that occur through his influence in the fauna and 
flora of a country— and particularly the two classes of 
phenomena just alluded to. It is, therefore, an interesting 
fact, that since 1859, the very year when the " Origin of 
Species" was first given to the world, America has afford- 
ed striking illustrations of both. In the Colorado Potato- 
beetle (Doryphora 10-lineata) we have a native species 
whose eastward spread has been carefully watched and 
recorded, from year to year ; and in the Eape Butterfly 
(Pieris rapc&) an European species whose introduction 
and westward advance have been equally well observed 
since that time. Both have been found in these com- 
paratively few years to undergo modification in habit and 
character. The history of the former thus acquires an in- 
terest to the naturalist, second only to that which, by 
virtue of its destructiveness, it possesses for the agri- 
culturist. 



THE COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE, 

{Doryplwra 10-Uneata, Say.) 

[Order, Coleoptera; Family, Chrtsomelid^e.] 

[Fig. 2.] 




Colorado Potato-beetle :— a, a, eggs ; 6, &, 5, larvaB in different stages of growth ; 
c, pupa ; d, d, beetle, back and side views— natural size ; e , left wing-cover, showing 
punctation ; /, leg— enlarged. 

ITS PAST HISTORY. 

This destructive insect commonly known as the Colo- 
rado Potato-bug, or simply as the Potato-bug* was first 
described under the scientific name of Doryplwra decern- 
lineata, in the year 1824 f by Thomas Say, who was then 

* Entomologically the term "bug" is confined to a single Order of insects 
—the Bemiptera— and it is most correct and less misleading to say " potato- 
beetle." America is the only English speaking country in which all insects, 
indiscriminately, are popularly denominated "bugs, 11 and with the spread of 
entomological knowledge, the custom will doubtless become obsolete. 

t Journal of the Academy of Xatural Sciences of Philadelphia, Vol. III. 

(ii) 



12 POTATO PESTS. 

acting as naturalist to Long's exploring expedition to the 
Kocky Mountains. The specimens from which his des- 
cription was made had been collected in the region of the 
Upper Missouri, and it was at that time not uncommon 
there. The original food-plant of the beetle was sub- 
sequently found to be the Sand-bur {Solarium rostratum, 
Dunal), a species of wild potato peculiar to the region 
of the Kocky Mountains. 

As civilization advanced westward, and potatoes began 
to be grown in its native home, this insect gradually 
acquired the habit of feeding upon the cultivated potato; 
and in 1859, it had spread, eastward and reached a point 
one hundred miles to the west of Omaha city, in Nebras- 
ka. In 1861, it invaded Iowa, gradually, in the next 
three or four years, spreading eastward over that State. 
In 1864 and 1865, it crossed the Mississippi, invading 
Illinois on the western borders of that State, from the 
eastern borders of North Missouri and Iowa, upon at least 
five points on a line of two hundred miles. The first 
published account of the destructive propensities of the 
species may be found in the Prairie Farmer for August 
29th, 1861, in a letter from Mr. J. Egerton of Gravity, 
Iowa, who stated that "they made their appearance up- 
on the vines as they were up, devouring them as fast as 
they grew." From that time forth frequent reports of 
the species' great destructiveness west of the Mississippi 
appeared in most of the Agricultural papers. In Octo- 
ber 1865, Benjamin D. Walsh of Illinois furnished to the 
Practical Entomologist an extended description of the 
new invader from the West, together with an account of 
its habits so far as they had been investigated ; and in the 
same article expressed the conviction that in all probabil- 
ity it would in future years "travel onwards to the At- 
lantic, establishing a permanent colony wherever it goes, 
and pushing eastward at the rate of about , fifty miles a 
year." (Practical Entomologist, Vol 1. No. 1.) A re- 



COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 13 

markable peculiarity in the eastern progress of this insect 
was subsequently pointed out by the same writer, in 1866, 
namely, "that in marching through Illinois in many 
separate columns, just as Sherman marched to the sea, the 
southern columns of the grand army lagged far behind 
the northern columns." (Ibid, II. p. 14.) By the autumn 
of 1866 the beetle, which appears to have invaded the 
southwest corner of Wisconsin at as early a date as 1862 
(Ibid, II. p. 101) had already occupied and possessed a 
large part of the cultivated and southern portions of that 
State ; and in Illinois, if we draw a straight line to con- 
nect Chicago with St. Louis, nearly all the region lying 
to the northwest of that line was over run by it. In 1867 
it had already crossed the eastern borders of Northern 
and Central Illinois into Western Indiana, and in 1868 it 
extended to Central Missouri and Southern Illinois. In 
1869 its presence was reported quite generally oyer the 
State and it had even made its way into Ohio, appearing 
almost simultaneously in the northern and southwestern 
portions. Its advent in the northern part of the State is 
thus described by a correspondent of the Ohio Farmer : 
"Haying crossed the Mississippi at Eock Island the in- 
sects soon traversed the State of Illinois and reached the 
shores of Lake Michigan, where they might have met a 
watery grave, but, unfortunately their course was only 
deflected southward, and there were other cohorts of 
the invaders traversing lower parallels, so that, by con- 
vergence, the force was multiplied ; and great fears were 
anticipated by the potato growers of Northern Indiana 
and Ohio." These fears were subsequently justified. 
During the years 1869 and 1870 the insect was exceeding- 
ly destructive all through the Northwest, and continued 
its eastward march at an ever increasing rate. In July 
of the latter year it invaded the province of Ontario at 
two different points, namely, near Point Edward at the 
extreme south of Lake Huron, and opposite Detroit, near 



14 POTATO PESTS. 

Windsor, at the south-western corner of Lake St. Clair. 
During the spring and summer of 1871 the insect was 
unprecedentedly numerous. In March of that year the 
beetle was turned up in great numbers while the ground 
was being plowed, especially in fields that had been plant- 
ed the previous year to late potatoes ; and it subsequently 
swarmed on the wing in the streets of St. Louis. 

The northern columns continued to advance at a rapid 
rate. During the summer the Detroit river was literally 
swarming with the beetles, and they were crossing Lake 
Erie on ships, chips, staves, boards, or any other floating 
object which presented itself. They soon infested all the 
Islands in the west end of the Lake, and by June were 
common around London, and finally occupied the whole 
country between the St. Clair and Niagara rivers. In 
the States they reached in some places the borders of 
New York and Pennsylvania. The southern columns of 
the army lagged far behind. Though gradually spreading, 
the insect had not yet touched the extreme southern 
counties of Missouri, and made its first appearance dur- 
ing the year 1871 in Phelps, Eeynolds, Wright, Dent, and 
Texas counties. In 1872 its injuries were much less severe 
in the West, owing to the action of its natural enemies, 
and the free use of Paris green, but its eastward march 
continued. It extended into Cattaraugus county, N. Y.,, 
and obtained a foothold as far east as Lancaster Co., Pa. 
The Southern columns reached beyond Louisville, Ky. 

In 1873 the advance guards of the vast army pushed to 
the extreme eastern limit of New York, and detached 
colonies made their appearance in the District of Colum- 
bia and in W. Virginia. 

Early in the summer of 1874, I received undoubted 
evidence of its appearance on the Atlantic seaboard, and it 
was reported during the year from several parts of Con- 
necticut, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Dela- 
ware, Maryland and Virginia. 



COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 15 

Its injuries also increased in its native home in the 
Eocky Mountains. It had formerly been observed by 
many western travelers that the potatoes in the Mountain 
regions of Colorado were less affected by the insect than 
were those of the Mississippi Valley. This was natural 
enough, since the wild food plants are common there, and 
the potato fields fewer, and more scattered than further 
east ; and moreover the stream which first branched 
off from the wild Solanum feeders and took to feeding 
upon the cultivated potato, and spreading eastward, 
doubtless at first took no backward course. During 
the summer of 1874, however, the insect did great damage 
to the crops of its native region in all fields below the 
middle elevations. 

The summer of 1875 in Missouri and adjacent States 
was so excessively wet that although the beetle was 
abundant enough in the spring, it subsequently became 
comparatively scarce and harmless, and did not again be- 
come multiplied till after the rains had ceased and the 
third brood had developed ; by which time the crop was 
sufficiently matured to be out of danger. Very much the 
same conditions occurred all over the upper Mississipi 
Valley country, and as there was an increased acreage 
planted, the crop throughout this whole section was 
larger and prices lower than they had been for many 
years. In the Atlantic States the insect attracted much 
more attention. From almost all parts of New York, 
New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia, accounts came 
of the excessive numbers in which the pest made its ap- 
pearance in the months of May and June. Local papers 
throughout the States mentioned, published records of 
the insect's injury, and laid the experience that had been 
gained in the States to the West before their readers ; 
while even large city dailies, like the World and Herald 
of New York, devoted column after column to Dorypho- 
ra's consideration. Judging from the mass of accounts, 



16 POTATO PESTS. 

the first brood was very generally neglected by those who 
had not before had experience with the insect, and not till 
the more numerous second brood appeared did the farm- 
ers awake to the importance of action, and, as far as pos- 
sible, concerted action. Much injury was consequently 
done. 

Later in the season the beetle at times swarmed in and 
about the large cities, and was commonly seen flying in 
the streets of Philadelphia and New York, as in past 
years it had been seen in those of St. Louis. Mr. J. J. 
Dean, of New York, after referring to its frequency in the 
streets of Brooklyn, gave me the following interesting 
account of its occurrence on Coney Island. 

• On the 14th of September I picked up the enclosed specimen at 
Coney Island. The beach for miles was covered with them — the 
hummocks and sand-hills which comprise the greater part of the 
Island were literally alive with them. In the towns of Flatbush 
and Gravesend, both situated in King's Co. — the latter town in- 
cluding Coney Island within its boundaries — the ravages of this 
insect have been very serious. The Egg-plant seems to have 
afforded him his favorite article of diet. I am however puzzled 
by the fact that so many millions of them desert the fertile fields 
of Flatbush and Gravesend and steer for the barren acres of Coney 
Island, on which the principal vegetation is a coarse sea grass 
which they do not seem to touch. They appear to have an irre- 
sistible tendency to travel East, and are only stopped by the waves 
of the Atlantic Ocean. 

In the Fall the insect reached up into Vermont and 
extended to within a few miles of Boston, but had not 
yet occurred in Maine. 

During the present year, 1876, the insect has swarmed 
in most of the New England States, and especially on 
the sea shore. It has extended north around Montrea 1 , 
and was especially abundant as far as Trois Eivieres ; *) 
while in its eastern progress it has overrun Connecticut, 
Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire, and extend- 

* L. Provancher in Naturaliste Canadien, Aug. 18T6, p. 249. 



COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 17 

ed some distance into Maine. At Milestone and other 
places in Connecticut the beetles were washed ashore in 
such numbers in September as to poison the air, and the 
captain of a New London vessel found that they boarded 
him in such numbers while at sea that the hatches had 
to be closed. At many watering places, such as Cape 
May, Coney Island, Long Branch, Kockaway and New- 
port, they proved a great nuisance, being crushed and 
killed in large numbers by the continual promenading 
along the beach. The New York Times reported their 
impeding the progress of a train on the Central Eailroad 
at Grinnell Station : " the rails were covered with them 
for a mile and after a few revolutions of the drivers the 
wheels lost the friction and slipped as if oiled ; * * * they 
had to be swept off, and the track sanded before any pro- 
gress was made." 

THE INSECT'S NATIVE HOME. 

As in the case of all insects that spread or are intro- 
duced from one section of country to another, it is inter- 
esting to know the original home or range of the Colorado 
Potato-beetle, so far as such can be learned, though the 
question has no especial practical bearing. 

Up to the autumn of 1865 it was generally supposed 
by economic entomologists, that this destructive insect 
had existed from time immemorial in the Northwestern 
States, feeding upon some worthless weed or other ; and 
that of late years, from some unexplained cause, it had 
all of a sudden taken to attacking the potato-plant. 

They had however confounded with it an allied species, 
described further on as the Bogus Colorado Potato-beetle, 
and which never attacks the cultivated potato. 

Following Walsh, I have always believed that this spe- 
cies, which has gradually spread to the Atlantic, originally 
came from the mountain regions of Colorado, and the 
reasons given are sufficiently convincing to have been very 



18 POTATO PESTS. 

generally accepted as valid. Nevertheless Prof. Cyrus 
Thomas questions the soundness of the theory in the fol- 
lowing language, which I quote because Mr. Thomas's 
views are entitled to careful consideration: 

The first we hear of its attacking the potato, so far as I can 
ascertain, is in 1859, at which time it was in Nebraska, about 100 
miles west of Omaha ; the next we hear of it is in Iowa, in 1881, 
from which point its progress has been carefully noted. Now, it 
is not contended by any one that it travels except from potato patch 
to potato patch. That it manages in some way to get over inter- 
vening spaces of a few miles, is admitted, but never over spaces 
which require the production of intervening broods. Previous to 
1859, as is well known, there was an intervening space between 
the border settlements of Nebraska and the eastern base of the 
mountains of two or three hundred miles in which there were no 
potato patches. How are we to account for it bridging this space ; 
what induced it to tak*e up its line of march across this barren 
region in which there were no settlements ? Is it not much more 
reasonable to suppose the plains themselves formed its native habi- 
tat, and that as soon as the pioneer settlements reached this region 
and the potato was introduced, it commenced its attack upon^it, 
and then began its march eastward along the cultivated area ? 

Western Bural, December 4, 1875. 

The weak points in the above reasoning are that it im- 
plies, first, that the insect travels only from potato patch 
to potato patch, and that there must have been potatoes 
at every few miles between the point west of Nebraska, 
where the beetle was first noticed on cultivated plants, 
and the mountains ; second, that no cultivated potatoes 
were grown on said plains. In truth, however, potatoes 
were undoubtedly grown around Fort Kearney and other 
forts and settlements prior to that time, and the beetle 
may travel by the spreading of other wild species of So- 
larium, and by being carried along water courses or on 
vehicles. One point that may be urged in favor of the 
supposition that the insect was indigenous to the plains 
that reach far eastward into Kansas and Nebraska, is that 
it was unobserved in potato fields by certain parties in 



COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 19 

parts of Colorado after it had reached as far as Iowa. 
The point is, however, weakened by the fact that it was 
found in great abundance in Colorado by Drs. Velie and 
Parry in 1864. Another point that maybe made is that 
it is difficult to imagine that an insect, with such a natural 
predilection for Solarium tuberosum, could haye passed 
from settlement to settlement across the plains without 
its depredations being noticed and recorded. But this 
last point may also be turned against Prof. Thomas's sup- 
position, since it is also just as difficult to imagine that 
the potato patches that have been grown in restricted lo- 
calities on the plains should have remained untouched, if 
the insect had always existed on those plains. Moreover, 
since potatoes were cultivated on the eastern borders of 
the plains in Nebraska and Kansas long prior to 1859, 
there can be no good explanation why the insect did not 
sooner commence its eastward march, except on the 
theory of a natural barrier in the shape of the more bar- 
ren plains, which had up to that time prevented its ad- 
vance from more western confines. 

Mr. Thomas, in support of his views, supposes that the 
Sand bur (Solanum rostratum) originally occurred over the 
plains in question, citing as proof Gray's statement that it 
is wild on the Plains West of the Mississippi, and the lo- 
calities given by Porter and Coulter in their Flora of Colo- 
rado. Dr. Gray's language is altogether too general to 
help much in the argument, and refers to the range of 
the plant ten years after the beetle had appeared in Ne- 
braska. Porter and Coulter's localities are all in Colora- 
do, and their "Plains of the Platte," doubtless refers to 
the south fork of that river. At all events, nothing is 
more certain than that the original home of the plant 
was the more 'fertile portions of the mountain region, 
and that, like the beetle which it nourished, it has been 
for many years extending its range eastward through 
man's agency in one way and another, and is now rapidly 



20 POTATO PESTS. 

extending across Missouri, where but a few years back it 
was entirely unknown. Mr. Carruth, of Topeka, says 
that prior to 1864, it was unknown in Kansas, and Mr. 
0. W. Johnson, of Atchison, writes me that the coming 
of Doryphora and of the weed in question were cotern^ 
poraneous in that section ; that the northern dispersion 
of the plant from the South-west, through the Texas 
cattle traffic, afforded the means by which the beetle pass- 
ed the great stretches of prairie lying east of its native 
haunts. 

Bearing in mind that as early as 1824 Say reported the 
beetle sufficiently common on the upper Missouri, and 
that it flourishes most in the more northern of the States, 
I think we may justly conclude that the native home of 
the species is the more fertile country east of the moun- 
tains, extending from the Black Hills to Mexico, where 
it becomes scarce, and is represented by Doryphora un- 
decemlineata and D. melanothorax. Putting all the facts 
together, we may also conclude that it crossed the great 
plains through man's agency. That it first reached the 
more fertile cultivated region to the east, in Nebraska, 
finds explanation, perhaps, in the fact that travel was 
greatest along that parallel, and that the insect's natural 
range extended further eastward in those more northern 
parts, just as the mountain region does in Wyoming and 
Dakota. 

On the whole, Walsh's theory is doubtless at fault, and 
needs modification in so far as it implies that the insect 
necessarily came from Colorado ; still I can but think that 
our Doryphora came from the Eocky Mountain region, 
and that civilization, in the way of traffic, travel, and 
settlement on the plains, was the means of bringing it, 
and that if we put not a too strict construction on his 
language, Walsh's views are in the main correct. 



COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 21 



RATE AT WHICH IT TRAVELED. 

"Walsh estimated, from the rate at which it traveled in 
the earlier history of its march, that it would reach the 
Atlantic in 1881. From subsequent calculations I placed 
the date at 1878, but it in reality touched the Atlantic sea- 
board at many different places in 1874. It thus spread 
at an average annual rate of about 88 miles. But the 
annual rate was by no means uniform. Earlier in the 
history of its march the rate was much lower, and, until 
it got east of the Mississippi, did not average fifty miles. 
A glance at the map accompanying this pamphlet will 
suffice to show that, as indicated on p. 20, the line of most 
rapid spread was along the line of greatest human travel 
and traffic. In fact, after it had reached New York it 
began to extend and swarm both north and south along 
the coast, before many of the inland counties on similar 
parallels were reached by the main line of the immense 
army. 

HOW IT TRAVELED. 

As the larva is sluggish and never leaves the plant from 
which it is hatched, except in quest of more food, until 
it is ready to pupate, all the journeys of this insect are 
necessarily made in the perfect or beetle state by means 
of the ample rose-colored wings, which, when the insect 
is at rest, are compactly folded up beneath the striped 
wing-cases. Its spread, however, over the more populous 
portions of the country, is not to be attributed to its 
powers of flight alone. It undoubtedly availed itself, to 
no inconsiderable extent, of every means of transporta- 
tion afforded to other travelers, and often got a lift on 
eastern bound trains, and, as we have seen, (p. 20), most 
probably crossed the more barren plains bordering its 
native confines through man's direct agency, i. e. by being 
carried. There is a possibility that in some instances it 



22 POTATO PESTS. 

may have been carried in the egg state on living plants, 
or in the pupa state in lumps of earth ; but these modes 
of transit, if they have occurred at all, have necessarily 
been exceptional. Even the winds and waters aided its 
progress. Its invasion of Canada took place at precise- 
ly the two points where we should expect to first meet 
with it in the Dominion, namely, at the extreme south of 
Lake Huron, and at the south-western corner of Lake St. 
Clair ; for all such beetles as fly into either of the lakes 
from the Michigan side would naturally be drifted to 
these points, and be washed to the shores of the St. Clair 
and Detroit rivers. As we know from experience, 
many insects that are either quite rare, or entirely un- 
known on the western side of Lake Michigan, are fre- 
quently washed up along the Lake shore at Chicago ; and 
these are so often alive and in good condition, and so often 
in great numbers, that the Lake shore is considered excel- 
lent collecting ground by entomologists. In like manner 
locusts are often washed up on the shores of Salt 
Lake, in Utah, in such countless numbers that the stench 
from their decomposing bodies pollutes the atmosphere 
for miles around. I have not the least doubt, therefore, 
in view of these facts, that the Colorado Potato-beetle 
could survive a sufficient length of time to be drifted 
alive to Point Edward, if driven into Lake Huron any- 
where within twenty or thirty miles of that place, or if 
beaten down anywhere within the same distance while at- 
tempting to cross the lake. * 

"We have already seen, (p. 14), how in 1870 the beetles 

crossed Lake Erie on ships, chips, staves, boards and any 
*_ 

* The following item which was clipped from the St. Joseph (Mich.) Herald, 
attests the accuracy of the inference:— 1 ' Whoever has walked on this shore of 
Lake Michigan has ohserved large numbers of the Colorado Potato-beetle, crawl- 
ing from the water. Many have doubted the source whence they came. It 
would seem from the following that they fly and swim from the western shores 
of Lake Michigan. Capt. John Boyne of the Lizzie Doak, reports finding his 
deck and sails infested with potato bugs when half way from Chicago to St. Jo- 
seph at night. Not a bug was on deck when the schooner left Chicago." 






COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 23 

other floating object that presented itself, while the De- 
troit river literally swarmed with them. 

An incident related to me by Jno. Hurlburt, Jr., who 
was engaged at the time in surveying and prospecting on 
the southern shore of Lake Superior, will illustrate how 
great a distance the beetles may extend without food 
when aided by water: he found them in immense quan- 
tities on a potato patch belonging to some Indians on the 
Menomonee river ; yet this potato patch was in a clear- 
ing of about twenty acres, with no other clearing near ; 
and to his certain knowledge there could not have been 
another potato patch within one hundred and fifty miles. 

Many insects that are subject to very great multiplica- 
tion, though not naturally migratory, often acquire the 
habit of migrating in swarms from one part of a country 
to another ; and the migrating tendency has at times 
been quite marked in our Doryphora during its eastward 
march. This tendency is particularly noticeable in the 
last or Fall brood, and I have seen the beetles in autumn, 
swarming in the air or traveling in immense armies on 
foot — all instinctively taking the same direction, which 
is indeed a peculiarity of all animal migrations. There 
can be little doubt, therefore, that the larger areas have 
been traversed by this insect in the latter part of the 
growing season. 

IT SPREADS, BUT DOES NOT TRAVEL IN THE SENSE OF 
LEAVING ONE DISTRICT EOll ANOTHER. 

Let it not be understood that this insect, in its onward 
spread, or march, ever entirely quits any district where it 
has once obtained a foothold. This idea of its itinerant 
character seems very generally to prevail, and a great many 
people labor under the impression that soon after its ad- 
vent, this dreaded foe to the potato will of its own accord 
take its leave as suddenly as it came — that, like every other 
dog, it will have its day. This idea is rather encouraged, 



24 



POTATO PESTS 



though I believe unintentionally, by Dr. LeBaron in his 
first Illinois Entomological Report, where he gives it as 
his opinion that the beetle will in time disappear, " espe- 
cially in those localities where it is most abundant, even 
though we leave the work wholly to Nature." Nothing 
could, however, be farther from the truth, or less in ac- 
cordance with past experience. It may, and very general- 
ly does, prove more injurious during the first two or 'three 
years of its advent than subsequently ; because time is 
required for its natural enemies to multiply sufficiently 
to keep it in check. But wherever it once obtains a foot- 
ing, there it may be expected to remain for all time to 
come — vascillating, it is true, from year to year, in num- 
bers and consequent power to do mischief, according as 
the conditions for its increase or decrease are favorable ; 
but always present to take its chances in the great strug- 
gle for existence, and to get the upper hand if it can. 

AREA INVADED BY IT. 

From the foregoing account it is manifest that this 
pernicious beetle has spread over an area of nearly 1,500- 
000 square miles, or considerably more than one-third 
the area of the United States. It has traveled over two- 
thirds of the continent in a direct eastern line, and at 
least 1,500 miles of this distance since 1859. It occupies 
at the present time, more or less completely, the States 
of Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Mis- 
souri, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, 
Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, District of Columbia, 
Virginia and West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New 
Jersey, Connecticut, Ehode Island, Massachusetts, Ver- 
mont, New Hampshire and Maine, in none of which it 
was autochthonous except the first mentioned. If we 
wish to outline the whole territory now occupied by it, 
we must add to the above, parts of Wyoming and Dakota 
where it was native, and a large portion of Canada ; and 



COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 25 

the map at the beginning of this little work tells the 
story better than any words I can employ. 

CAUSES WHICH LIMIT ITS SPREAD. 

There are reasons why the Colorade Potato-beetle did 
not spread as rapidly along the line of its southern as 
along that of its northern march. The first is, that the 
potato is not in such general cultivation along the latter 
as along the former parallel, and potato fields are there- 
fore more scattered ; the second, that the insect was 
northern rather than southern in its native habitat ; the 
third, that it suffers and does not thrive where the ther- 
mometer ranges near 100° F. The larvae frequently 
perish under such a broiling sun as we sometimes have at 
St. Louis, and during very hot, dry weather, it frequent- 
ly fails, as it did in 1868, to successfully go through its 
transformations in the ground, which becomes so hot and 
baked that the pupa dries out, and the beetle, if it sue* 
ceeds in throwing off the pupal skin, fails to make its 
way to the surface. For these reasons it may never ex- 
tend its range very far south of the territory now occu- 
pied. Its northern spread is not limited by any such 
cause, and the intensity or length of the winter will hard- 
ly affect it except in reducing the number of possible an- 
nual broods and consequently its power of multiplication. 
The state of dormancy once entered into may continue 
a month or two, more or less, without seriously affecting 
most insects. We may expect, therefore, to see it push 
to the northermost limit of the potato-growing portion 
of the country — a limit which it has already well nigh 
reached. 

The question whether it will extend further westward 
and reach the Pacific, is a more interesting one. There is 
the best reason for believing that the Eocky Mountains 
furnish an impassable barrier to it, as they do to so many 
other insects. It has already been shown (p. 15) how po- 
2 



26 POTATO PESTS. 

tatoes in the mountains were for years less affected than 
were those of the Mississippi Valley ; but that in 1874 
the insect proved quite injurious to those of the mountain 
region of Colorado. The fact is well established that it 
has not reached more than three or four miles into the 
mountains, or to about the middle elevations — say 8,000 
feet above the sea level. The reason is that the .atmos- 
phere above that level is so dry and attenuated, that, 
taken in connection with the cool nights, the eggs, or the 
larvaB that succeed in hatching from them, shrivel and 
dry up. We have here, therefore, a physical barrier to 
its further westward progress, and the beetle is no more 
likely to reach California without man's direct assistance 
and carriage than it is to cross the Atlantic Ocean without 
the same means. Whether it could thrive on the Pacific 
Coast where the summers are so dry, is another question; 
but I fear it would hold its own, in many portions, if 
once introduced. In this connection it will be well to 
state that geographical races of Doryphora 10-lineata, 
differing in no very important characters from the typical 
northern specimens, occur in S. Texas, New Mexico, Ari- 
zona and Mexico, though they seem to have no more 
acquired the potato-feeding habit than D. juncta has done. 

HOW IT HAS AFFECTED THE PEICE OF POTATOES. 

During the earlier years of the insect's devastations 
in the Mississippi Valley, it materially affected the price 
of potatoes, not only by its direct ravages, but by dis- 
couraging farmers from attempting to cultivate the crop 
on an extensive scale. In 1873 the price reached the high 
figure of $2.00 per bushel (wholesale) in the St. Louis mar- 
ket, and many a family had to forego the luxury of a pro- 
duct which a few years before had been one of the cheap- 
est of the farm, and so abundant as to enter largely into 
the feed of all kinds of stock. At the present time, with 
the improved methods of fighting the enemy, there is no 



COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 27 

longer the same dread of it in the Western States that 
formerly existed : its management is considered part of 
potato-culture, and its natural enemies assist man to that 
degree that its effect on the crop is less felt. The quality 
of °the tuber was very seriously affected through the de- 
foliation which the vines so generally endured, and it was 
at one time difficult to get a non-watery potato on our 
western boards. 

THE MODIFICATION IT HAS UNDERGONE. 

Under the head of food-plants it will be presently 
shown how the species, as it spread oyer the country, be- 
came modified in habit, and increased the number of its 
food-plants. It has also undergone considerable modi- 
fication in character. Specimens which I have examined 
from different parts of the country, show great variation 
in the marks of the thorax, in size, in coloration, and even 
in the ornamentation of the elytra, or wing-covers, and 
legs. The yellow varies from deep gamboge to almost pure 
white, the black line along the elytral suture is either very 
distinct or as obsolete as mjuncta ; while same specimens 
have the pale legs and the femoral spot, more or less dis- 
tinct, which are so characteristic of this last. In north- 
ern Iowa and Wisconsin I have seen millions traveling 
over the ground, the average size of the individuals being 
not more than half that of the more typical specimens ; 
and the general ground-color being white rather than 
yellow. In its southern range the colors tend to brighten 
and the black to become more metallic. Indeed the vari- 
ation which it has already exhibited furnishes interesting 
material for the close species makers ; but it will suffice 
here to indicate that it exists : its consideration more in 
detail, belongs elsewhere. 

ITS NATURAL HISTOET. 

The natural history of this insect was first made known 
by the author in the columns of the Prairie Farmer for 



28 POTATO PESTS. 

August 8th, 1863. Subsequently, in 1866, Dr. Shinier of 
Mt. Carroll, 111., detailed some additional particulars 
bearing on its habits, in a paper which he published in 
the Practical Entomologist, (Vol. I. pp. 84-85). The 
Colorado Potato-beetle hibernates in the perfect state, 
beneath the surface of the ground, or under any rubbish 
or other shelter that it can find. It has been exhumed 
from depths varying from a few inches to several feet, 
though its habit is not to burrow deeper than ten inches. 
The beetles are often dug up or plowed up in April, and 
they issue from their winter quarters soon after the 
ground thaws out, and at this season fly readily during 
the warmer parts of the day, making aerial journeys of 
considerable extent. 

In flight the striped elytra are raised and held motion- 
less from the thorax, while the gauzy wings, unfolded 
and vibrating, strike pleasantly on the eye as the sun in- 
tensifies their rosy hues. 

The females begin to lay their eggs upon the young 
potato plants — mostly on the underside of the leaves — as 
soon as the latter appear above ground, and will often 
work into the ground to feed upon the young leaves be- 
fore these have fairly shown themselves. The eggs are 
oval, of a translucent dark orange color, and are deposit- 
ed in clusters of from 10 to 40 on the under sides of the 
leaves. The larvse are hatched in less than a week, and 
are at first of a dark Venetian red., becoming lighter and 
acquiring a double row of black lateral spots as they ap- 
proach maturity. The legs, head and posterior half of 
the first joint are also black. In from two to three weeks 
these larvae acquire their full growth, after which they 
enter the earth and undergo their transformations, first to 
the pupa and then to the beetle state, which last is assum- 
ed in about a month from the time of hatching. There 
are three broods or generations each year in the latitude 
of St. Louis : yet it may be found at almost any time 



COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 29 

during the summer in all its different stages. This is 
owing to the fact that the eggs in the ovaries continue to 
develop, and are laid in small batches at short intervals 
during a period of about 40 days in summer. The num- 
ber produced by a single female averages from 500 to 700, 
but has been known to reach over 1,000. The whole 
cycle of transformations from the egg to perfect beetle 
rarely requires more than a month, and the last brood 
of beetles issue from the ground early in the fall, and, 
as we have just seen, enter it again to pass the winter. 

ITS POISOKOUS QUALITIES. 

This question has been much and freely discussed in 
the columns of the agricultural press since the year 18G6, 
and the war of divided opinion and diverse experience 
has waged briskly. That the juices of the insect on the 
human skin, are, as a rule, harmless, is proven by the 
hosts of farmers who have, with impunity, crushed the 
pest by hand ; indeed, scarcely any one who has had ex- 
perience believes the wild stories of the poisonous nature 
of these juices. Yet the rule is not without exceptions ; 
there is no doubt that, with blood in certain bad con- 
ditions, persons have been poisoned by getting said juices 
into wounds or cuts. But the cases of undoubted poison- 
ing by this insect — cases that have in some instances been 
serious and even proved fatal — are not from the juices of 
the body, but from the exhalations resulting from the 
bruising or crushing of large masses ; especially by 
burning or scalding large quantities at a time. The 
poison seems to be of a very volatile nature, and to pro- 
duce swelling, pain, and nausea, very much as other animal 
poisons do. In the writer's reports, as well as in the first 
report of Dr. Wm. LeBaron, formerly State Entomologist 
of Illinois, authentic instances of such poisoning are re- 
corded. Therefore, while there can be little danger in 
the cautious killing of the insect in the field, it should 



30 POTATO PESTS. • 

not be recklessly handled in large quantities, and its 
destruction, in such quantities, by scalding or burning, 
should be especially avoided. 

Some interesting experiments, to test the poisonous 
qualities of the'se insects, were made in 1875 by Messrs. 
A. E. Grote and Adolph Kayser, and reported in a paper 
entitled " Are Potato Bugs Poisonous?" read before the 
American Association for the Advancement of Science at 
its meeting in Detroit. The experimenters conclude that 
the reported cases of poisoning resulted rather from the 
arsenic used in destroying the insect, or from carbonic 
oxide produced by incomplete combustion when large 
numbers of the beetles are thrown into a fire. It is to be 
hoped that the experiments will' be continued, because, 
so far, they by no means cover the whole ground ; we have 
yet to learn what the active principle is which produces 
the physiological effect that has been well attested, and 
the precise conditions under which it acts. 

It is worthy of note that Prof. A. J. Cook, of the 
Michigan Agricultural College, from experiments some- 
what similar to those of Messrs. Grote and Kayser, has 
been led to form conclusions quite opposite to those ar- 
rived at by these gentlemen. 

ITS FOOD PLANTS. 

In its native home the Colorado Potato-beetle fed upon 
the few wild species of Solanum found there, especially S. 
rostratum and 8. cornutum. It still often shows a prefer- 
ence for these wild plants to the cultivated potato. For 
a number of years it was thought that the insect was in- 
capable of flourishing on any other plants but those of 
the Night-shade Family (Solanacece), and more especially 
upon those of the Night-shade genus proper, (Solanum), 
which includes the Egg Plant, the Horse-nettle, and some 
other wild species west of the Mississippi, which are. 
known by various popular and local names. Upon the 



COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 31 

Horse-nettle, (8. Carolinense), which is common in Mis- 
souri and east of the Mississippi, but is mostly replaced in 
Kansas by the S. rostratum, it seems to delight even more 
than upon the potato, and it has been found quite injurious 
to other plants of the same genus, such as the 8. Warsce- 
wiczii, 8. robustum, 8. discolor , and 8. Sieglingii which are 
often cultivated for their ornamental foliage. The other 
common plants of the family, such as the Tomato, (Ly co- 
per sicum), Ground cherry, (Phy sails,) Thorn apple, {Da- 
tttra), Henbane, (Hyoscyamus), Apple of Peru, (Nican- 
dra), Tobacco, (Nicotiana) , Belladona, Petunia, and Cay- 
enne Pepper are not over much to its liking, though upon 
a pinch it will feed upon all of them, and especially the 
first named. Dr. Le Baron observed that the Cayenne 
pepper, if eaten to any extent, was actually poisonous 
to it. 

Under these circumstances it is interesting to note (as 
showing how new habits may be acquired under favorable 
conditions), that as the insect became more and more 
acclimated east of the Mississippi, it acquired the power 
to feed on a greater variety of plants, and did not even 
confine its depredations to those belonging in the natural 
Order Solanacece. In 1871 it was found by several parties 
feeding and even breeding in considerable numbers on 
Cabbage. It would be sad indeed if so important an 
esculent should in the future be doomed to suffer with 
the potato, from the insatiable appetite of such a pest ; 
and though I have no idea that cabbage raisers need fear 
anything of the sort, yet stranger things have happened. 

In 1874 Mr. Henry Gillman, of Detroit, Michigan, added 
to the list of its food plants several new species, on which, 
in one state or another, he found them feeding. I quote 
the following from a letter in which he recounted to me 
these observations, with the remark that the fact of find- 
ing the eggs on a plant, or the insect sparingly nibbling 
the same, does not prove that it could live and thrive on 



32 POTATO PESTS. 

such plant, as a species, any more than the fact that a 
cow at times partakes sparingly of animal food proves 
that she could sustain life on a flesh diet. Yet the facts 
communicated by Mr. Giliman are interesting, as showing 
the tendency to which I have before alluded, toward a 
change of habit from year to year, as the insect changes 
and extends its habitat : 

I found the Doryplwra 10-lineata, Say, at Port Austin, Michigan, 
on June 19, 1872, feeding sparingly on young grass (too immature 
to determine its species), on which the insect had deposited its eggs. 
This was generally, though not always, in potato fields or their 
vicinity. On July 20 (about a month later) I found the insect at 
Fort Gratiot, Michigan, in large numbers, both larva and perfect 
states, in the vicinity of potato fields which it had almost destroy- 
ed, devouring the young leaves and flower-buds of the common 
thistle, (Cirsium lanceolatum, Scop.), which it was rapidly stripping. 
In the same neighborhood I saw it on Pigweed, (Amarantus retro- 
flexus, L.), Hedge Mustard, {Sisymbrium officinale, Scop.), the culti- 
vated Oat, Smartweed, (Polygonum Hydropiper, L.), and the Red 
Currant and Tomato of the gardens, as well as the common Night- 
shade, (Solarium nigrum, L.) ; of which, with the exception of the 
Night-shade, its more legitimate food, it ate only the young leaves, 
and of them very sparingly. Two or three weeks later I found 
the thistles devoured by it even to the thick stems, so that all the 
leaves were stripped off, and the entire tops of the plants hung 
down, almost severed. About the same time I saw the insect feed- 
ing on the maple-leaved Goosefoot, (Chenopodium hybridum, L.), 
Lamb's quarter, (0. album,, L.), and Thoroughwort, (Eupatorium 
perfoliatum, L.), and on August 8, 1872, I found it, in both the 
larva and perfect states, voraciously eating the Black Henbane, 
(Hyoscyamus niger, L.), on which was also to be seen an abundance 
of the eggs. As the last mentioned plant is not native, having 
been introduced from Europe, the beetle's fondness for it is more 
noteworthy. 

Mr. A. W. Hoffimeister, of Ft. Madison, Iowa, an en- 
tomologist, the accuracy of whose observations maybe 
relied on, wrote during the same year : 

Last year, after all the early potatoes had been taken up and the 
late ones either wilted through excessive dryness or eaten up by 



COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. CO 

the Colorado gentleman, I was astonished to find so many 10-lined 
spearmen in the lower part of town, while in the upper part they 
were reasonably scarce ; but I was more astonished to find that 
the larvae had stripped the Verbascum of its leaves. 

The Mullein, belonging to the Figwort family, must 
therefore be added to the list of plants on which the in- 
sect lives and flourishes. An item went the rounds of the 
papers during that year to the effect that Alfalfa was 
greedily devoured by the insect, but just how much credit 
should be given to the statement, which originated with 
a Montana correspondent of the Farmer's Home Journal 
of Kentucky, it is difficult to say. Probably the reference 
was originally made to the old-fashioned "potato-bugs," 
or blister-beetles, which are common in the Western 
country and very general feeders. 

This growing ability to adapt itself to a greater variety 
of food-plants will render its extermination and control 
all the more difficult. 

Several instances came under my notice where the 
beetles, in early spring, entered hot-beds in great numbers 
and devoured tender tomato and egg-plants. 

Among the Potatoes, the tender leaved varieties, such 
as the Shaker Kusset, Mercer or Meshannock, Pinkeye, 
and Early Goodrich are most affected, while the Peach 
Blow, Early Eose and the like enjoy comparative im- 
munity, especially when grown in the same field with the 
more tender varieties which attract the greater propor- 
tion of the pests. 

THE BEETLE EATS AS WELL AS THE LAEVA. 

As the statement has been quite frequently made that 
the beetle does not feed, and that consequently there is 
nothing to fear from it early in the year, the fact may 
as well be reiterated that the beetles do feed, though not 
quite so ravenously as the larva. But as they are on 
hand as soon as the young plants peep through the ground, 



34 POTATO PESTS. 

and as these first spring beetles are the source of all the 
trouble that follows later in the season, it is very impor- 
tant to seek and destroy them. 

ITS KATUKAL ENEMIES. 

Persons not familiar with the economy of insects are con- 
tinually broaching the idea that, because the Colorado Po- 
tato-beetle is in certain seasons comparatively quite scarce, 
therefore it is about to disappear and trouble them no 
more. This is a very fallacious mode of reasoning. There 
are many insects — for instance, the notorious Army-worm 
of the North, (Leucania unipuncta, Haworth), — which 
only appear in noticeable numbers in particular years, 
though there are enough of them left over from the crop 
of every year to keep up the breed for the succeeding year. 
There are other insects — for instance the Spring Canker- 
worm, (Paleacrita vernata, Peck), — which ordinarily oc- 
cur in about the same numbers for a series of years, 
and then, in a particular season and in a particular local- 
ity, seem to be all at once swept from off the face of the 
earth. These phenomena are due to several different 
causes, but principally to the variation and irregularity in 
the action of cannibal and parasitic insects. We are apt 
to forget that the system of Nature is a very complicated 
one — parasite preying upon parasite, cannibal upon can- 
nibal, parasite upon cannibal and cannibal upon parasite — 
until there are often so many links in the chain that an 
occasional irregularity becomes almost inevitable. Every 
collector of insects knows, that scarcely a single season 
elapses in which several insects, that are ordinarily quite 
rare, are not met with in prodigious abundance ; and this 
remark applies, not only to the plant-feeding species, but 
also to the cannibals and the parasites. Now it must be 
quite evident that if, in a particular season, the enemies 
of a particular plant-feeder are unusually abundant, the 
plant-feeder will be greatly diminished in numbers, and 



COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 35 

will not be able to expand to its ordinary proportions un- 
til the check that has hitherto controlled it is weakened 
in force. The same rule will hold with the enemies that 
prey upon the plant-feeders and also with the enemies that 
prey upon those enemies, and so on ad infinitum. The 
real wonder is, not that there should be occasional irregu- 
larities in the numbers of particular species of insects 
from year to year, but that upon the whole the scheme of 
creation should be so admirably doye-tailed and fitted to- 
gether, that tens of thousands of distinct species of ani- 
mals and plants are able permanently to hold their ground, 
year after year, upon a tract of land no larger than an 
ordinary State. 

To the naturalist it has been interesting to watch how, 
with the advance of the Doryphora toward the East, the 
number of its natural enemies has increased. The farmer 
should learn to distinguish these his allies, and to en- 
courage them. 

Several birds are known to feed upon both beetles and 
larvae. Among these is the Crow, which not only takes 
the beetles from the potato vines, but late in the season 
digs into the earth in search of the hibernating individuals. 
The common quail too, that blythe and pretty field com- 
panion, whose services as an insect gatherer have been 
altogether underrated, performs the same service for us. 

In July, 1872, Prof. C. E. Bessey, of Iowa Agricultural 
College, wrote me word that he found the Eose-breasted 
Grosbeak, (Guiraca ludoviciana), devouring the Potato- 
beetles, and soon afterward, the same bird was sent to 
me by E. H. King, of Stsamboat Eock, Iowa, with a 
similar statement. Other persons, especially in Iowa, 
observed the same trait in this bird, which, though for- 
merly quite rare, seems during that year to have suddenly 
multiplied and acquired this habit. Mr. Joel Barber, of 
Lancaster, Wisconsin, informed me that this bird, though 
seldom seen there before, was quite common in that vicin- 



36 POTATO pests" 

ity about the first'of June, breeding there, and clearing 
potatoes of the nasty "bugs," which it seemed to prefer 
to all other food. Ever since than it has effectually 
assisted the northwestern potato-growers in protecting 
his fields. 

The Eose-breasted Grosbeak is a beautiful and conspicu- 
ous bird, the male haying a heavy bill, with black head, 
black back, varied with brown, and black wings, the lat- 
ter with three white bands. Some of the outer tail- 
feathers and parts of the abdomen are white, and the 
breast is rose-red. 

Among domesticated birds, the duck was for several 
years the only species that would touch the nauseous in- 
sects, and for a long time chickens would invariably give 
them the go-by. After a few years, however, chickens 
learned to eat, first the eggs, and then the larvae, and 
finally acquired the habit of feeding upon the mature 
insects to such an extent that instances have been report- 
ed to me where between thirty and forty perfect beetles 
had been found in the crop of a single chicken, and this 
not from lack of other food but from preference. 

Among quadrupeds there is good evidence that the 
skunk feeds upon them. That good garden servant, the 
common toad, (Bufo Americanus), often gorges itself 
with them, while the black snake and doubtless other 
reptiles in this respect keep it company. 

Among spiders (Arachnida) an undetermined species 
of Plialangium, (Fig. 3 represents P. dorsatum. Say), 
has been seen preying upon our Doryphora larva. These 
animals are popularly called " Grand-daddy Long-Legs," 
in this country, but are also known as " Harvest-men," 
and " Grandfather Gray-Beards," in some parts. They 
all have similar habits, being carnivorous- and seizing 
their prey very much as a cat seizes a mouse, but differ 
from other spiders in that they bodily devour their victims, 
instead of sucking out their juices. They are known to 



COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 



37 



devour great numbers of plant-lice, and Mr. Arthur Bry- 
ant, of Princeton, 111., found them devouring the larvse 
of our Colorado immigrant. 




Of mites, (Acarina), there is a very interesting species 
( Uropoda Americana, Riley), which is parasitic on the 
beetle externally. It was first sent to me by Mr. H. 0. 
Beardslee, of Paynesville, Ohio, in 1873, and subsequently 



38 



TOTATO PESTS. 



found by Mr. W. E. Gerard, to very generally infest the 
beetles around Poughkeepsie, N". Y. It sometimes so 
thickly crowds and covers its victim that no part of this 
last is exposed, and the beetle thus infested languishes 
and eventually perishes. This minute parasite is about 
the size of the head of a small pin, broadly oval, depress- 
ed, the body in one piece, somewhat tough above, and 

[Fig. 4.] 




TJhopoda Americana :— «, Colorado Potato-beetle attacked by It— nat. size ; b, the 
mite, ventral view, and showing the penetrating organs lying between the legs ; c, the 
organs extended ; rf, the claw ; e, the excrementitious filament— all greatly enlarged. 

yellowish-brown in color. It is not uncommon on other 
beetles, and is closely allied to a well-known European 
mite parasite of beetles and other Articulates — the Uro- 
poda vegetans. This last is described by authors as pos- 
sessing the peculiarity of attaching itself to the hard, 
shelly parts of its victims by means of a thread-like fila- 
ment that issues from the posterior part of the body. A 
careful study of our American species has convinced me 
that the similar anal filament, which also helps it to adhere 



COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 39 

to Doryphora, is in reality excrementitious, sticking to 
the beetle and to the mite by a flattened disc at either 
end, being quite fragile and easily broken. The true 
penetrating organs, which enable the mite to hold tenaci- 
ously to its victim, and probably assist in obtaining nour- 
ishment, I have discovered to be a pair of extensile pro- 
cesses, each armed at the tip with a bifid claw somewhat 
resembling that of a lobster. When at rest these organs 
are retracted and lie between the legs and just under the 
skin. When extended, they are usually brought closely 
together and extend the whole length of the animal be- 
yond the head. Thus, in addition to the more frail excre- 
mentitious and adhesive filament, this Uropoda is provid- 
ed with an organ that is beautifully adapted to penetrating 
the hard covering of beetles, and of thus securing it to 
its slippery support. 

The most effective natural enemies of our potato pest, 
are, however, found among insects proper, and — deter- 
mined as man's warfare has been against it, with his 
mechanical appliances, and poisonous preparations — it is 
doubtful whether his efforts would have been availing 
without the aid of these tiny but by no means insigni- 
ficant allies. A few prey upon the beetle, but the larger 
number attack the eggs and larvse. I will give brief 
illustrated accounts of the more notable of them, accord- 
ing to their several orders : 

Ord. Hymenoptera.— -Though this, of all the Orders, 
contains the largest number of parasitic species, yet not 
one of them is known to attack the Doryphora, and the 
only Ilymenopteron that has been observed to attack it is 
the Eust-red Social Wasp, (Polistes ruliginosas, St. Farg. ), 
which has been seen to carry the Doryphora larva to its 
nest. The wasps of this genus, with their gray paper- 
like nests, are familiar objects. A solitary female or 
queen that has hybernated, founds the colony, feeding 
her larvce on honey and various partly masticated insects. 



•io 



POTATO r 



1 lor imiQ mposed of females only, 

somewhat smaller than herself. There are no males in 
this summer brood, and the virgin females build a nes 










pi* to 



Parana irosieiiroOTs; ,:,wa<;\ v . svri-pu,^t. 
common, and pre 
sexes, ::ion, 

tin the follow- 
ing spring* 

OrtL ( ler furnishes quire a number 

of Dai mong 

species of Ladybirds, (G 

D found by iv. 
3 others preying 

\oraeiously upon its 

i ps: U— n i : 

..iybird, 

De- 
ne of 
. - I 
. ; . 2.— The Kmc - I 

•. (OocdneUa 9- \\ ; . 
I • 

13-jni/irf.: 

little 








COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 41 

vergent Ladybird, (Rippodamia convergens,Gner.), and 
which is of an orange-red color marked with black and 
white, as in the figure. This last species alone has been 
of immense benefit in checking the ravages of the Pota- 
to-beetle. Its larva is represented 
of the natural size at Fig. 9, a, 
its color being blue, orange and 
black ; when full grown it hangs 
by the tail to the underside of a 
stalk or leaf, and transforms into 

a b c 7 

contsp.gsnt LADYBiBD:-a, the pupa represented at Fig. 9, ~b. 

larva , *, pupa ; c, beetle. j^ ^ ^^ jj Jg Qf ^ exad; C()lor 

of the Colorado beetle larva, and is doubtless quite often 
mistaken for that larva, and ruthlessly destroyed. It may 
readily be distinguished, however, by its perfect repose. 
Let every potato grower learn well to recognize it and 
spare its life ! 5. — The Icy Ladybird, (Rippodamia gla- 
cialis, Fabr.). This species, which was doubtless so 
[rig. ioj named from occurring so far north, where it 
^^^ is often found under ice and snow, has like- 
JHV wise been seen in great numbers carrying on 
^W^* the same commendable work. Fig. 10, repre- 
icy ladybisd. gentg it of t]ie natura j g j ze ^ the wing-covers be- 
ing of a bright orange-red, each marked behind with three 
black spots, the two upper of which are confluent, and 
the head and thorax being black, marked with cream- 
yellow, as in the illustration. The species is closely allied 
to the Convergent Ladybird (differing principally in being 
nearly twice as large, and in lacking the spots on the 
anterior portion of the wing-covers), and will be found to 
have similar transformations. 6.— The 15-spotted Lady- 
bird (Mysia 15-punctata, Oliv. ). This is the largest of our 
true Ladybirds, and the only other species of the family 
that is larger, in this country, is the Northern Squash- 
beetle, (Epilaclina borealis, Fabr.), a species which has 
the wing-covers spotted in a somewhat similar manner, 



42 



POTATO PESTS. 



and which is common in some parts of the East. The 15- 
spotted Ladybird is a very variable insect, and at d, e, f. 
and g, (Fig. 11), are represented four of the more strik- 
ing forms. In the more common form the thorax is 
cream-colored, and the wing-covers cream-colored, with a 
tinge of chocolate. In this form (d) the black spots and 
marks are conspicuous. In the next (e) the thorax re- 

[Fig. 11.] 




15-spotted Ladybied :— a, larva, devouring its prey ; b, pnpa ; d, e,f, g, beetle, 
showing variations— nat. size ; c, shield on first joint of larva— enlarged. 

mains the same, but the wing-covers are chocolate-brown, 
and the black spots are surrounded with a paler brown 
annulation. In the third form (/) the thorax is a little 
darker, and the wing-covers so dark that the spots are 
scarcely perceptible ; while in the fourth form the whole 
insect is of a uniform deep brown-black color. 

The larva of this beetle (Fig. 11, a) is jet black, with 
six rows of long spines and six long black legs. It has a 
paler yellowish stripe along each side, intercepted by two 
bright orange spots behind the legs, and there is also an 
orange spot on the back of the flattened first joint (c). 
When about to change, this larva fastens itself to the 
plant and changes to a cream-yellow pupa, marked with 
black, as at Fig. 11, 5. 

All these Ladybirds devour by preference the eggs of 
the Potato-beetle, and thus attack it in the most suscep- 
tible condition. The two larger species, and notably the 
last mentioned, also attack the Doryphora larva. The 
larvae of all these Ladybirds are more bloodthirsty in their 




COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 43 

habits than the perfect beetles, and the larva of the little 
Convergent Ladybird is so essentially cannibal, that when- 
ever other food fails, it will turn to and devour the help- 
less pupae of its own kind.* It is rather cruel, and with- 
al a somewhat cowardly act, to thus take advantage of a 
helpless brother ; but in consideration of its good services, 
[rig. 12.] we must overlook these unpleasant traits 
in our little hero's character ! All these 
larvse bear a strong general resemblance, 
and with the aid of Figs. 8, 9 a> 11 a, and 
12, a good idea may be obtained of them. 
They run with considerable speed, and may 
be found in great numbers upon almost 

species that prey upon the Hop Plant-louse in the East 
are well known to the hop-pickers as " black niggers" 
or " serpents," and are carefully preserved by them as 
some of their most efficient friends. 

The eggs of Ladybirds greatly resemble those of the 
Colorado Potato-beetle, and are scarcely distinguishable 
except by their smaller size, and by a much smaller num- 
ber being usually deposited in a single group. As these 
eggs are often laid in the same situation as those of Dory- 
phora, the farmer should learn not to confound those of 
his best friends with those of his bitterest enemies. A 
practiced eye soon discriminates between them, and it is 
often on such minute discriminations that we must dis- 
tinguish between friend and foe. 

Next in importance, among the beetles, as enemies of 
Doryphora, come certain Tiger-beetles, {Cicindclidce), and 
Ground-beetles, (Carabidce), which are quick of limb, 
very voracious, and devour indifferently the larva or the 
beetle. I will illustrate a few that have been found doing 

* This is so generally the case with predaceous insects, that the term " canni- 
bal " is often employed by entomologists, and is sometimes employed in this 
work to designate the rapacious or insectivorous species. 



u 



POTATO PESTS. 





this good work, though many others of the same family 
doubtless also prey upon the potato pest, as the different 
species are not at all particular as to diet. 

1. — The Virginia Tiger-beetle, (Tetracha Virginica, 

[Fig. is.] Hope), which is of c Fi s- 14 -J 

a dark metallic 

green color, with 

brown legs, and of 

which the annexed 

cut, (Fig. 13), will 

enable recognition 

to be made without 

much difficulty. 

2.— The Fiery 

Teteacha ViEGnncA. Q r u n fl - beetle, Calosoma calid™. 

{Calosoma calidum, Fabr.), is of a black color, with cop- 
pery dots, as shown in Fig. 14. Its larva is a black, 
elongate, six-legged creature known as the " Out- worm 
Lion," on account of the avidity with which it hunts 
for, and destroys, those garden and field pests. 

3. — The Elongate Ground-beetle, (Pasimachus elonga- 
tics, Lee. ), a pretty 
and conspicuous in- 
sect of a polished 
black color, edged 
with deep blue, and 
of a rather elegant 
form, (Fig. 15). 

4.— The Murky 
Ground- beetle, 
{Ilarpalus caligi- 

Pasimachus elongattts. nOSUSy Say), Which HARPALTJS caligikostts. 

is of a dull black color, and which is represented life-size 
at Fig. 16. 

In 1871 the Great Lebia, (Lebia grandis, Hcntz, Fig. 






cove 

Leeia gbandis. 



COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 45 

17), was found devouring the larra of Doryphora ; and 
during the subsequent year this beetle, hitherto consider- 
ered rare, was found to be very abundant 
in certain potato fields in Central Mis- 
souri, where it was actively engaged in 
destroying both the eggs and the larvae 
of the same. The head, thorax, and 
legs, of this cannibal are yellowish-brown, 
in high contrast with its dark-blue wing- 
covers. Mr. P. E. Uhler subsequently 
found the Black-bellied Lebia, (Lebia 
atriventris, Say), a species of the same color and general 
appearance, but only half as large as L. grandis, destroy- 
ing it around Baltimore. 

The same commendable habit is ascribed to the Kansas 
Bombardier beetle (BracMnus Kansaiius, Lee), an in- 
sect likewise bearing a general resemblance to the Great 
Lebia, but one third larger and more lengthened, and 
with the wing-covers of a duller, less polished blue. The 
beetles of this genus all have the power of discharging 
from the anus, when disturbed, an acrid fluid of so vola- 
tile a nature, that upon coming in contact with the air, 
it tenuates with an explosive noise and pungent smell, and 
hides the artilleryman in a bluish vapor which enables 
him to effect his escape. The species in question was 
first found attacking the Doryphora larvse by Mr. Thomas 
"Wells, of Manhattan, Kansas, who furnished me with 
specimens for identification. 

To those above enumerated may be added a species of 
Rove-beetle, belonging to the genus Pliilontlms. An 
undescribed species of this genus was found by Dr. 
Shimer, killing the Doryphora larvse in one of his breed- 
ing cages, and there is reason to believe that it follows 
the same habit when free in the field. The particular 
species noticed by Dr. Shimer was in the Walsh cabinet, 
which was destroyed in the great fire at Chicago, but to 



46 



POTATO PESTS. 



give the reader a correct idea of this genus of insects I 
present a figure of Philontlius apicalis, Say, (Fig. 18). 
The larvae are active and voracious, and bear considerable 
resemblance to the perfect insects. Fig. 19 is taken from 



[Fig. 18.] 




EOYE-BEETLS. 



Westwood, and shows that 
of Goerius olens. The pupre 
are quiescent and incapable 
of motion, all the parts be- 
ing soldered together and 
encased almost as firmly as 
in the chrysalis of a butter- 
fly. The head and pro- 
thorax are suddenly bent 
forward, the former touch- 
ing the breast, and the back 



[Fig. 19.] 




ROYE-BEETLE 
EAEYA. 



is curiously flattened. Fig. 20 represents the pupa of 
an allied insect found in the ground and from which 



[Fig. 2D.] 




EOYE-EEETLE 
FUPA. 



I bred Quedius molocliinus, Grav. The rove- 
beetles are, as a general rule, carrion feeders, 
preying voraciously on decaying animal and 
vegetable substances ; but some of them are 
true cannibals, while a few are even parasitic. 
Indeed they are no doubt more carnivorous 
than is generally supposed. 

Finally, strange as it may seem, the Striped 
Blister-beetle and the Ash-gray Blister-beetle, which are 
very injurious to the potato, seem to have the redeeming 
trait of also preying occasionally on the larva of the Colora- 
do Potato-beetle. It was first difficult to believe or reconcile 
the statements to this effect, but there have been so many 
of them, that the fact may now be considered as indisput- 
able, and these two blister-beetles may therefore, with 
propriety, be added to the list of enemies. I by no means 
advise their protection, however, on this account; fori 
believe that what little good they accomplish is much 
more than outweighed by the injury they do us. As 



COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 47 

authorities for these statements may be quoted, among 
many others, Abel Proctor, of Jo Daviess county, 111., and 
T. D. Plumb, of Madison, Wis. 

"When dog cat3 dog, then comes the tug of war ;" 

when rogues fall out, honest men come by their own. 
Ord. Hemiptcra. — All the insect enemies of our Potato- 
beetle so far mentioned destroy it by mastication with 
their jaws — all of them being possessed of powerful man- 
dibles. The several true bugs, belonging to the Heterop- 
terous division of the Order under consideration, obtain 
their food on the contrary by suction, piercing their vic- 
tim with their sharp beak or proboscis. The following 
species are known to attack our Doryphora. 

1. — The Spined Soldier-bug, (Arma* spinosa, Dallas). 
This is one of the most common and efficient of Dory- 
phora's enemies, occurring in all parts of the country, 
and seeming to have a decided fondness for our potato- 
LFig. 21.] destroyer, especially for the soft larva. 

"n^ f It is of an ochre yellow color, and is 

represented with one pair of wings 
closed and the other pair extended, 
in the annexed, Fig. 21. Thrusting 
forwards his lonp; and stout beak, ho 
spined s oldies-bug. - sticks it into his victim, and in a short 

a, enlarged beak ; &, bug, timG p^pg ou t all the juicCS of its 
wita ngnt wings ex- L x " 

panded. body and throws away the empty skin. 

He belongs to a rather extensive group (Scutellera family) 
of the true bugs (ffeteroptera) , distinguishable from all 
others by the very large scutel, which in this genus is 
triangular, and covers nearly half the back. Most of the 
genera belonging to this group are plant-feeders, but there 
is a sub-group (Spissirostres), to which our cannibal 
friend belongs, characterized by the robustness of their 
beaks, and all of these seem to be cannibals. To illus- 

* Belongs to the modern generic subdivision Podisus, 




48 POTATO PESTS. 

trate to the eye the difference between the beaks of the? 
cannibal sub-group and the plant-feeding sub-groups of 
this family, Fig. 21, a, gives a magnified view of the 
beak of our insect seen from below, and Fig. 28, c, a 
similarly magnified view of that of a plant-feeder belong- 
ing to the same family (Eiiscliistus pundipes, Say), which 
is so nearly of the same size, shape, and color, as our can- 
nibal friend, that at first sight many persons would mis- 
take one for the other. The Spined Soldier-bug, how- 
ever, may be at once distinguished from all allied bugs, 
whether plant-feeders or cannibals, by the opaque brown 
streak at the transparent and glassy tip^of its wing-cases. 
It has sometimes been reported that the common 
Squash-bug, (Coreus tristis, DeGeer), preyed upon the 
Colorado Potato-beetle ; but there 
can be very little doubt that the 
Spined Soldier-bug has in these in- 
stances been mistaken for it. The 
colors of the two are somewhat 
similar, but in the eyes of an ento- 
mologist the Squash-bug looks as 
different from the Spined Soldier- 
SQTJASH-ET7G.-&, cniar-cd "bug as a cow does from a horse ! 

beak. 

The figure (22, a), of the former, 
which is here given, compared with that of the latter, 
(Fig. 21), on the previous page, will enable any one to 
recognize the difference, while its magnified beak (Fig. 
22, 1), indicates by its slenderness that it is a plant-feeder. 
"While treating of the Spined Soldier-bug, it will be 
well perhaps to state that though, with all true Bugs, its 
larva and pupa are active, and have the same habits and 
general form of the mature insect, yet they differ so much 
in coloration and pattern, that they are scarcely ever 
properly identified, and have often been sent to me as a 
new Potato-bug enemy by those who have found them 
boldly following out their naturally voracious instincts. 





COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 49 

The eggs of this Soldier-bug are pretty, little bronze- 
colored, caldron-shaped objects, with a convex lid, around 
which ciliate fifteen or sixteen white spines (Fig. 23, c,). 
They are neatly placed side by side in clusters of a dozen 
or more upon leaves and other objects, and are so much 
subject to the attacks of a minute Hymenopterous para- 
site, that those who undertake to hatch such as are found 
[Fig. 23.] out-doors will more often get flies 

than bugs. The newly-hatched bug 
is ovoid, and shiny black, with some 
bright crimson about the abdomen. 
In the full-grown larva, (Fig. 23, 1), 
Y ^ ) ^T\ &> the black still predominates on the 
spiked soldiee-bug.-c, egg; thorax, but some four yellowish 

&, larva ; a, pupa. J 

spots appear, and the abdomen 
becomes more yellowish, though still tinted with red. In 
the pupa, (Fig. 23, a), which is readily distinguished by 
the little wing-pads, the ochreous-yellow extends still 
more, and finally, with the last molt, the black disappears 
entirely in the perfect insect. Throughout the immature 
stages the shoulders are rounded, and not pointed, and 
the antennae or feelers have but four joints instead of 
five as in the mature bug, while there are but two visible 
joints to the feet or tarsi instead of three. 

We have been taught to admire the muscular power of 
the lion, which is enabled to grip and toss an animal 
larger than itself with its powerful neck and jaws ; but 
feats performed by these young Soldier-bugs throw the 
lion's strength completely into the shade, for they may be 
often seen running nimbly with a Doryphora larva, four 
or five times their own size, held high in air upon their 
outstretched beak. 

The Spined Soldier-bug by no 'means confines himself 
to Potato-beetle larvae, but attacks a great number of 
other insects. 

2. — An allied species, (Arma [Podisus] cynica, Say), of 
3 



50 



POTATO PESTS. 



[Fig. 24.] 




BOEDEBED SOLBTEE- 
BTTG. 



[Fig. 25.] 



the same color as the preceding, but about twice as large, 
and less common, has the same habit of feeding on Dory- 
phora. 
3 # _ The Bordered Soldier-bug, (Stiretrus fitribriatus, 
g a y # ) — This belongs to the same sub- 
group, and has the same kind of short, 
robust beak as the preceding, but unlike 
that species, it is so conspicuously and 
prettily marked that it cannot easily be 

I fB^Hy) confounded with any other. Its colors 
\wW\ are dark olive-green and cream-color, 
marked as in Fig. 24. It is not so com- 
mon as the preceding species. 
4. — The Many-banded Eobber, (Harpador* ductus > 

Fabr.). This species is still 

more elegantly marked than 

the preceding. Like the Spin- 

ed Soldier-bug, this species 

is common, and inhabits trees 

more commonly than herba- 
ceous plants ; but it belongs 

to an entirely different group 

of the true Bugs, (Beduvius 

family), all of which, without 

exception, are predaceous, and mant-bandbd robbee.-^, bug, en- 

-i j • t i t j larged; b, its beak, more enlarged. 

are characterized by a short, 

robust, curved beak. Fig. 25 gives a magnified view of 
this bug, the colors being yellow, white, and black, and it 
may be known by the name of the Many-banded Bobber. 

5. — The Bapacious Soldier-bug. This bug, (Beduvius 
raptatorius, Say), belonging to the very same group as 
the preceding, is represented at Fig. 26. It is of a brown 
color and easily recognized. It likewise has the same 
habit. 




* Milyas, Stal. 



COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 



51 



6. — The King-banded Soldier-bug, (Perillus circwn- 
cinctus, Stal), is the fifth member of this useful group. 



[Fig. 26.] 



[Fig. 27.] 





Rapacious Soldiee- 
bug. 



Ring-banded Soldier-bug. — a, 

bug enlarged ; 6, its antenna ; c, its 

beak still more enlarged. 



This prettily 
marked insect, 
(Fig. 27, 5, show- 
ing an enlarged 
view of its an- 
tenna, and c, of 
its beak), is of a 
rich polished 
brown color, 
marked as in the figure, with pale yellow. Underneath 
on the yenter there is a large yellow patch containing 
four black spots quadrangularly arranged, and there is a 
border of yellow extending around the edge of the whole 
body. It is a not uncommon species. 

7. — The Dotted-legged Plant-bug. This species, {Eu- 
chistus punctipes, Say, Fig. 28), is minutely speckled, and 
of an ochre-yellow color, and so closely resembles the 
Spined Soldier-bug that the reader is referred to the 
illustration of the "latter to contrast with it. The most 
obvious features whereby to distinguish 
these two insects are those furnished by 
the figures, namely, the more flattened 
form of the Soldier-bug and especially of 
its quadrate head, and its sharp-pointed 
thorax. This last character is variable, in 
both, so that specimens of the former 
occur with the thorax rounded, and of 
the latter with it more or less pointed ; 
but there are two other structural dif- 
ferences which are always constant and can always be 
relied on to distinguish the two insects. If the Spined 
Soldier-bug be examined underneath, its beak, (Fig. 21, 
a), will be found to be quite stout, especially at the base, 
and between the hind legs at the base of the venter, a 




f 



D OTTED-LEGGED 

Plant - bug. — c, its 
beak, enlarged. 



52 POTATO PESTS. 

prominent tooth pointing toward the head will be noticed. 
This latter feature is entirely absent in the Plant-bug ; 
while the more slender beak (Fig. 28, c), of the latter, 
the average larger size, the black-dotted legs, and the ab- 
sence of the opaque brown streak at the transparent and 
glassy tip of the wing-cases, {hemelytra), combine to dis- 
tinguish still further from its more ferocious relative. 

The Dotted-legged Plant-bug was once considered a 
purely vegetable feeder, and its being caught partaking 
of carnivorous food is somewhat exceptional, though re- 
corded in my 4th Eeport, and more recently recorded as 
new, in Field and Forest for Oct. 1876. It is, however, 
an interesting fact, entomologically considered, and shows 
that the carnivorous is not so widely separated from the 
herbivorous habit as we are wont to suppose. Indeed an 
8th bug called the Large Green Tree-bug, (Nezara Mla- 
ris, Say), somewhat resembling EuscMstus in form, but 
uniformly green in color, has also been found sucking the 
juices of our Doryphora larva, though normally it is a 
plant-feeder. 

Ord. Diptera. — One of the most efficient, where it oc- 
[Fig.29.] curs, of all the enemies 

of our Potato-beetle, and 
the only internal para- 
site, is what may be 
called the Doryphora 
Tachina Parasite, (Ly~ 
delta doryphorce, Eiley). 
It is a two-winged fly 
belonging to the para- 
sitic family of Tachina- 
1 flies, (Tachinidce). It 

lydella DOKYPnoEis. bears a very close resem- 

blance, both in color and size, to the common house-fly, 
but is readily distinguished from the latter by its extremely 
brilliant silver-white face. It may be seen throughout the 




COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 



53 



summer months flying swiftly from place to place, and 
deftly alighting on fence or wall, where, basking in the 
sun, its silvery face shows to good advantage. As with 
the rest of the family to which it belongs, the habit of 
the female is to attach a single egg externally to the body 
of the Potato-beetle larva. This egg subsequently hatches 
into a little footless maggot, which burrows into the body 
of its living victim, and eventually destroys it, but not 
until it has gone underground in the usual manner. The 
victimized larva, instead of becoming a pupa, and even- 
tually a beetle, as it would have done had it not been at- 
tacked, begins to shrink as soon as it enters the ground, 
and gradually dies ; while inside its shriveled skin the 
parasitic maggot contracts into a hard brown pupa, and 
in due time issues forth in the shape of the fly which I 
have figured. This fly has been found at times so abun- 
dant in western potato fields, that its buzzing resembled 
the noise made by a swarm of bees, and the Doryphora 
was well nigh exterminated by its progeny. 

In addition there are in this order certain large Asilus- 
iTig. so.] flies, and notably the 

Missouri Bee - killer 
(Protocanthus Milber- 
ti, Macq), which 
pounce upon and suck 
the vitals out of the 
Doryphora larva. All 
these large flies are 
very blood-thirsty — 
the hawks of the in- 
sect-world ; and some 
of them are quite in- 
jurious to bees. 
Thus, besides one spider and one mite, there are a full 
two dozen species of true insects, viz. : one wasp, fifteen 
beetles, six half-wing bugs and two flies, that have been 




ASILUS-FLT. 



54 POTATO PESTS. 

actually observed by myself and others, preying on the 
Colorado Potato-beetle. The number has increased from 
year to year as the insect widened its range, and there will 
no doubt yet be many predaceous species added to the list. 

KEMEDIES. 

These fall into four different categories. 1st, Encour- 
agement of the natural enemies just referred to ; 2nd, 
Preventive measures ; 3rd, Mechanical Means of destruc- 
tion ; 4th, The use of poisonous applications to the plant 
for the same purpose. 

1st. — Encouragement of Natural Enemies : — Under this 
head it is only necessary to draw the reader's attention to 
those which have been figured and described, and to urge 
their protection wherever found. More particularly in 
hunting for the Doryphora eggs early in the season, the 
farmer should learn to discriminate between them and 
the similar but invariably smaller eggs of the Ladybirds. 

2nd. — Preventive Measures : — Something may be done 
in this line in the Fall by means of heaps or rows of straw, 
or of the dried potato-haulm, under which some of the 
beetles will shelter to hibernate, and may be killed in 
winter. In the Spring, some good may be accomplished 
by adopting the following plan : Slice some potatoes, dust 
the pieces with Paris Green, and drop them about a field 
early in the season when the beetles come from their win- 
ter quarters. They feed upon the slices and of course 
die. The method can only be safely practiced where no 
domestic animals can get at the baits. Another method 
is that first employed by Mr. James Eivers, of Cass Coun- 
ty, Mich., viz., a mixture of chicken manure and ashes, 
applied to each hill of potatoes just as the plants are com- 
ing through the ground — the object being to check the 
cracking and raking of the soil, and thus prevent the 
beetles from hiding around the young plants at night or 
during cold weather. The application appears in addition 



COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 55 

to keep tlie beetles off, at the same time that it invigor- 
ates the plant. 

Col. Fred. Hecker, of Summerfield, Ills., once had a 
patch of potatoes covered with straw, which had entire 
immunity from the insect's attack ; but it is doubtful 
whether under the same treatment such immunity could 
always be relied upon. Careful watch should be kept for 
the eggs that are first deposited. By stooping the body 
they are easily seen on the underside of the leaves when 
the plants are young. Thorough cultivation by means of 
frequent stirring of the soil should be practiced. Early 
varieties in preference to late ones should be planted, be- 
cause the insects are usually more numerous late in the 
season than they are during the Spring and early Sum- 
mer*. The preference should be given to the Peach Blow, 
Early Eose, and such other varieties as have been found 
most exempt from attack, and the fields surrounded on 
the outside by rows of such tender-leaved varieties as the 
Mercer, Shaker, Pinkeye, and Early Goodrich. The 
beetles will'be attracted to these, and the labor of killing 
will be facilitated. Above all the potato field should be 
isolated as much as possible, either by using land sur- 
rounded by timber, or by planting in the center of a corn- 
field. It is well also to plant in ground that was not the 
previous year used for potatoes. 

3rd.— Mechanical Means of Destruction :— One of the 
simplest means of destruction is, of course, hand-picking, 
and when pursued early in the season, it is most effectual. 
In doing so it is generally the custom to collect the beetles 
and larvse in some vessel of water and afterwards destroy 
them ; but it is perhaps preferable to crush them while 
on the vines, and for this purpose a very simple pair of 
pincers, like those represented in Fig. 81, consisting of 
two pieces of wood, a screw, and two small strips of leather, 
will be found very useful. 

During the Summer of 1870 there was a sudden diminu- 



58 



POTATO PESTS. 



tion of the numbers of this insect throughout the Mis- 
sissippi Valley, and it did not increase to any alarming 
extent during the rest of the season. The disappearance 
was in many sections so thorough that it is Yery question- 
ing. 31.] able whether man and nat- 
ural enemies should alone 
be credited with the cause. 
The Spring was uncommon- 
ly dry and warm, and, so 
far, was favorable to the in- 
crease of the insect ; but 
the summer drouth and ex- 
treme heat which followed 
were quite unfavorable to 
its multiplication. Warm, 
dry weather in Spring is 
congenial to the growth 
and well-being of the larvae, 
as they swarm upon and de- 
vour our vines ; but at a 

Potato-beetle Pincebs. later stage of their lives, 

when they have to enter the earth to undergo their trans- 
formations, a great many of them will undoubtedly die 
if the earth continues excessively dry and hot. They 
will, in short, be dried and baked to death. Those who 
have had large experience in breeding insects, and who 
understand the importance of coolness, and especially of 
moisture, in the successful development of those which 
transform under ground, feel perfectly warranted in such 
an inference, even though no systematic and accurate 
experiments have been made to test its validity. The 
extreme heat and dryness of the season, furnished a good 
opportunity to employ the sun-scalding remedy, and it 
was fully shown that in an intense summer sun, the larvae 
and even the beetle will generally die, if knocked from 
the vines on to the dry and heated ground, especially if 




COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 57 

the yines have been well hilled. During hot, dry weather, 
therefore, especially in the more southern latitudes where 
the insect ranges, this mode of destruction may be em- 
ployed to advantage ; but it should not be forgotten that 
some of the full-grown larvae will doubtless enter the 
ground, and that the method can only be employed at a 
season when the insects have done most of their damage. 
A cheap, rapid, and effective method, which commends 
itself to the good sense of every one, is for one person to 
go along the rows with a short-handled broom, and by 
quick motions knock all the bugs off, while a second 
person follows immediately after, dragging by a single 
horse a heavy bundle of brush, or close-toothed harrows 
made for the purpose. Some of the bugs will escape 
being killed, and a few of the younger larvae may not be 
knocked off, but the operation is so rapidly performed 
that it will bear repetition as often as necessary. 

As the ravages of Doryphora became more and more 
general and destructive, and the necessity for its extermi- 
nation became correspondingly urgent, the inventive 
genius of many farmers and gardeners was exercised in 
devising implements for its destruction, which would do 
the work more expeditiously and cheaply than it could 
be done by hand. 

One of the first of these was a horse-machine, invented 
in 1866, by a Mr. Benson, of Muscatine, Iowa. As this 
machine, or some improvement oil it, may prove advan- 
tageous where potato-growing is carried on extensively, I 
subjoin his account of it. 

" The cost of the machine was about thirty dollars. It consists 
of a frame-work, which moves astride the row of potatoes, on 
which is mounted longitudinally a reel somewhat like the one on 
McCormick's old Reaper, which knocks the bugs off the plants in- 
to a box on one side. This box is of course open on the side next 
the row nearly down to the ground, but is some two feet high on 
the outside and at the ends. The reel works over the inner edge 



58 



POTATO PESTS. 



of the box, and the bugs are whipped off the vines pretty clean ; 
and the most of them are thrown against the higher side of the 
box, which converges like a hopper over two four-inch longitudi- 
nal rollers at the bottom, between which the bugs are passed and 
crushed. These rollers are some three or four feet long. 

" Those insects which are perched low down on the plants are 
frequently knocked on to the ground ; but I think they would soon 
crawl up again ; and repeating the operation at intervals would 
very greatly reduce their numbers, and lessen very much the labor 
of hand-picking, which I think would be advisable in conjunction 
with the use of the machine, in order to destroy the eggs and 
diminish the young brood, which is most destructive to the foliage 
of the plant." 

In 1870 Mr. George Squires, of Montgomery, 111., built 

a machine to be drawn by horses, which worked very 

effectually. It is a modification of the one invented by 

[Fig. 32.] Mr. Benson, described above, 

being a simple box, six inches 

high, with wheels to which 

brooms are attached to sweep 

the vines — the wheels circling 

towards the box. 

Mr. Samuel Creighton, of 
Lithopolis, Ohio, subsequently 
invented his " Im- 
proved Patent Insect 
Destroyer," which is 
especially intended 
for this insect. It 
is a hand machine of 
a very simple nature, 
and the accompany- 
ing outline, (Fig. 32), 
will give a very good 
idea of it. In using, 
it is held in the right hand by the handle, a, and 
placed at one side of the potato hill, with the upper end 
more or less inclined, according to the size of the plants. 




Foe Collecting the Insect. 

is held in the risrht hand 



COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 



59 



In this position the lower branches of the plants will over- 
hang the forward edge of the plate, d, and the flanges of 
the sides c, c, which are slightly bent outwards, will em- 
brace the second and third side of the vines, leaving the 
fourth exposed. The operator then strikes this exposed 
side, with a light, flat, and broad broom, thus detaching 
the insects which fall to the bottom of the trap. When- 
ever the trap is filled the insects are emptied out through 
a sliding door, 5, and destroyed in whatever manner the 
operator sees fit. A good size for this trap is 2*| 3 feet in 
hight, 15 inches from flange to flange, and 7 inches 
across the narrow way of the pocket. It should be made 
of tin, or if of wood, the pocket should be lined with tin; 
as when kept smooth or moistened w T ith oil or water the 
insects can not easily crawl out, as one goes from hill to 
hill. This contrivance is but an improvement on the 
common tin pan, and its principal merit lies in its cheap- 
ness and simplicity. 

Mr. H. Bowen, of Sheridan, Illinois, thus describes an 
U ig33:] instrument which 

he has used with 
ease and profit. It 
is not patented, 
and commends it- 
self for lightness 
and simplicity : 

Take four wooden 
barrel hoops, D, I), 
and two narrow bar- 
rel staves, two and a 
half inches wide, B y 
B, and two more, E, 
E. For the handle 
use a hoop of sufficient length to be handy for the person that 
uses it, open it and fasten it to the staves. All these pieces 
are to be nailed together with small wrought clinch nails. When 
this is done it will be nearly in the form shown in fig. 33, or 




Potato-beetle Catchee. 



60 POTATO PESTS. 

something like a flour-scoop. The frame work is to be covered by 
sewing on cotton cloth, in the manner shown in the engraving. 

To work it, it is held in one hand, and the mouth is slipped around 
the hill of potatoes close to the ground. With the other hand the 
vines are struck a light blow with a new broom, and all the bugs 
arc jarred into the cage. After a quantity has been " bagged " they 
are emptied out and destroyed. 

There are several other devices, both patented and non- 
patented, all having the same object in view. Most of 
them arc too complicated to be very practical, and none 
that I am acquainted with are superior to the few here 
referred to. 

The great difficulty with all mechanical contrivances 
of this kind, lies in the fact that they can only be used 
when the vines are of a considerable size, whereas the 
enemy must be most persistently fought from the moment 
the ground parts to give way to the sprouting tuber, until 
the plants are a few inches high. 

4th. — Poisonous Applications to tlie Plant. — After 
the beetle had established itself in the more densely popu- 
lated States, it soon became evident that neither hand- 
picking nor more wholesale slaughter by means of me- 
chanical contrivances would enable the potato-grower to 
cope successfully with his enemy. Many farmers preferred 
to lose their potato crop rather than to expend the amount 
of time and labor necessary to secure it, and the pest, in 
consequence, multiplied to an alarming extent. The dis- 
covery of a cheap, easily applied and reliable destructive 
agent became all important, and to this end numerous 
experiments were made by the writer, in 1869, with 
various poisonous and acrid substances, among which 
were lime, ashes, cobalt, white hellebore, cresylic acid, 
soap, and arsenic. Some of these produced no effect 
whatever upon the insects, while others in killing the 
pests killed the potato-vines as well, and were therefore 
rejected as impracticable. Paris green, as it was first 



COLOBADO POTATO-BEETLE. Gl 

used, without any admixture, was likewise fatal to the 
vines ; but the discovery was soon made that when com- 
bined with certain proportions of flour or plaster, and 
applied while the dew was on, the insects were killed 
without any deleterious effects being produced upon the 
plants. This substance has now become THE remedy 
for the Colorado Potato-beetle, and it is the best yet dis- 
covered. Having thoroughly tested it myself, and hav- 
ing seen it extensively used, I can freely say that, 
when applied judiciously, it is efficient and harmless. If 
used pure and too abundantly, it will kill the vines as 
effectually as would the bugs, for it is nothing but arsenite 
of copper (often called " Scheele's green " by druggists), 
and contains a varied proportion of arsenious acid, accord- 
ing to its quality — often as much as fifty-nine per cent., 
according to Brande & Taylor. But when diluted with 
from 15 to 20, or if the green be absolutely pure, with 
25 to 30, times its weight of flour, it causes no injury to 
the foliage, and just as effectually kills the insects. The 
varied success attending its use, as reported through our 
many agricultural papers, must be attributed to the dif- 
ference in the quality of the drug. The adhesive property 
of flour — which may be of the most inferior quality — 
gives it an advantage over ashes, plaster, and slacked 
lime, although these may have the advantage of cheap- 
ness and are frequently used. The green cannot well be 
mixed with the other substances, except by the aid of a 
mill, and it is for this reason that those who mix in large 
quantities have the advantage. 

Paris preen is now also used to a considerable extent in 
liquid suspension, in proportion of one tablespoonful of 
pure green to a bucketful of water. The liquid has the 
advantage over the powder, in that there is less danger 
from injury in its use, and that it can be effectually used 
at any time of day ; while the powder can be employed 
to advantage only while the dew is on the plants. It has, 



62 



POTATO PESTS. 



however, some disadvantages : 1st, the green is not soluble, 
for though it quickly gives a green tint to the water when 
stirred, it soon settles to the bottom, unless kept in sus- 
pension by continued stirring or agitation ; 2nd, it settles 
in spots on the leaves, the natural tendency of the water, 
in finding its level, being to carry and concentrate it 
wherever a drop finds rest and evaporates ; 3rd, too much 
is usually wasted on the ground in the sprinkling. I 
have, therefore, found it much more convenient, on a 
small scale, to use the powder, where it can be obtained 
ready mixed by machinery. Applied when the dew is on 
the plants it will adhere more uniformly, and it obviates 
the necessity of carrying about so much water. 

But whether the green be used in water or as a powder, 
the flour will prove a desirable addition, since it renders 
Uig. 84j the green more adhesive and con- 

sequently more serviceable. Some 
care will be required in using, how- 
ever, to prevent its forming lumps. 
The adhesive quality in" the liquid 
may also be obtained by dissolving 
molasses, dextrine, or gum arabic in 
the water— the two latter, however, 
much more expensive than the 
flour. The green in the form of 
powder may be shaken over the 
vines in various manners, and some 
persons have found an old sleazy sack, such as those used 
for table salt, to do good service, when attached to the 
end of a stick. It is most safely applied by the aid of a 
perforated tin box with a double lid for safety when not in 
use (Fig. 34), and attached to the end of a stick three or 
four feet long. The least possible dusting suffices, and by 
taking the handle of the dust-box in the left hand, and 
then tapping the box with a stick held in the right hand, 
one can walk rapidly along and regulate the amount sifted. 




Dust-box foe Paeis gkreen, 
Upside-down. 



COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 



63 



[Fig. 35.] 



In the form of liquid the green may be sprinkled over 
the vines with a sprinkler or an old broom. This will 
serve on a small scale, but for large fields various contriv- 
ances have been successfully employed to save time and 
labor. 

In 1874 Mr. Frank M. Gray, of Jefferson, Cook county, 
Ills., sent me a sprinkler which he has constructed 

for sprinkling two 
rows at once. It 
is so simple and 
yet so useful that 
a brief description 
of it will not be 
out of place here. 
It consists of a can 
capable of holding 
about eight gallons 
of liquid, and so 
formed as to rest 
easy on the back, 
to which it is fast- 
ened, knapsack- 
fashion, by adjust- 
able straps, which 
reach over the 
shoulders and fast- 
en across the breast. 
To the lower part 
of the can are at- 
tached two rubber 
tubes, which are 
connected with two nozzles on sprinklers. The inside of the 
can has three shelves, which help to keep the mixture stir- 
red. There is a convenient lever at the bottom which presses 
the tubes and shuts off the outflow at will, and two hooks 
on the sides near the top on which to hang the tubes 




GRAY'S I:iIFROYET> SPRINKLER, FOE THE USE OP 

Paris gbeen water. 



64 POTATO PESTS. 

when not in use. On the top is a small air-tube and a 
capped orifice. Two bucketf uls of water are first poured 
into the can, then three tablespoonfuls of good green, 
well mixed with another half-bucketful of water and 
strained through a funnel-shaped strainer which accompa- 
nies the machine, and the use of which prevents the larger 
particles of the green from getting into the can and clog- 
ging up the sprinklers. Five to eight acres a day can 
readily be sprinkled by one man using the can, and from 
one to one and a half pound of good green, according to 
the size of the plants, will suffice to the acre. Two 
lengths of nozzles are furnished, one for use when the 
plants are small, the other when they are larger. The 
can should be filled on the ground and then raised on a 
bench or barrel, from which it is easily attached to the 
back. The walking serves to keep the green well shaken, 
and the flow of the liquid is regulated at will by the 
pressure of the fingers on the tubes at their junction with. 
the metallic nozzles. When not in use, the tubes should 
be removed, the can emptied, and laid on its back. I can 
testify to the case and efficiency with which this little 
machine may be used. 

An excellent Spray Machine has been invented by Mr. 
"W. P. Peck, of West Grove, Pa., consisting of a tank, 
strapped knapsack-fashion on the shoulders, and connect- 
ed by rubber tubes with a pair of bellows, strapped to 
the waist, turned by a crank, and connected with a mov- 
able nozzle. I have used it with good results, and know 
of no instrument that better answers the purpose, or more 
effectually economizes material. This atomizer can of 
course be used to distribute other liquids than Paris 
green water, and to protect other plants than potatoes ; 
but for use in the potato field it answers an admirable 
purpose. The tank holds three gallons, and there is a 
simple device at the bottom which, by the motion of walk- 
ing, keeps the liquid in agitation and prevents the green 



COLORADO TOTATO-BEETLE. 



65 



from settling. The liquid issues in a fine spray and with 
considerable force. The very general use of Paris green 
as an insecticide had the effect at first to raise the price 
of the drug to an exorbitant figure, and in many places 
the demand largely exceeded the supply. The impetus 
given to its manufacture, however, soon reduced it to a 




Peck's Speay Machine. 

reasonable price again, and of late years the cost of its 
use to protect a potato-field, even where the insect has 
been very abundant, has averaged only from S3 to $5 per 
acre, according to the number of applications. 

In addition to Paris green, a great number of drugs and 
other substances have been tested as "Potato-bug" reme- 
dies. The most thorough experiments were instituted 



66 POTATO PESTS. 

during the summer of 1871, by Messrs. Win. Saunders and 
E. B. Keed, of London, Ont., under the direction of their 
Commissioner of Agriculture, and from their report I 
quote the results obtained with various chemicals : 

Arseniotjs Acid (Arsenic). — This chemical, being much cheaper 
than Paris Green y and more uniform in its composition, we hoped 
would have proved a practical and safe remedy. We tried it in 
the proportions of half ounce, one ounce, and two ounces, to a pound 
of flour, and while we are not prepared, from the few trials we 
have made, to entirely disapprove of its use, the results we have 
obtained point to the conclusion that where it has been used in 
sufficiently large proportions to destroy the insect, it has caused 
more or less injury to the leaves. In cases where Paris Green is 
not obtainable this might be used as a substitute, in the proportion 
of one ounce to one pound of flour, which should always be color- 
ed with some black powder, such as charcoal or black antimony, 
so as to lessen the risk of accident from its use. 

Another Arsenical compound was also tested, known in com- 
merce as Powdered Cobalt or Fly Poison ; this was used in the same 
proportions as the last mentioned, and with similar results, but 
owing to its higher price we do not recommend it for general use. 

Sulphate of Coppeb (Blue Stone). — A strong solution of this 
salt was tried in the proportion of two ounces to one gallon of 
water, and showered on the vines with a watering pot, without 
damage to either the insect or the plant. 

Bichromate of Potash. — This is a poisonous substance large- 
ly used in dyeing, and one which has attracted some attention in 
France of late, as a remedy for insects. We used it dissolved in 
water in the proportion of two ounces to three gallons of water. 
This killed the insects effectually, but at the same time destroyed 
the plants. Whether, in a more diluted form, this remedy could 
be effectively used without injury to the foliage, we are unable to 
say, but shall experiment further with it. 

Powdered Hellebore. — This powerful irritant, which is so 
effectual as a remedy for the Currant Wormy we tried without per- 
ceptible effect, both in powder and also mixed with water, in the 
proportion of one ounce to the gallon of water. Several other 
poisonous substances were also used with like results. 

Carbolate of Lime. — There are several preparations sold 
under this name, which we found to vary much in composition 
and character, and equally so in effect. We tried an article known 



COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 67 

as DougalFs without any good results, but succeeded better with 
one prepared by Lyman Bros. , of Toronto, a black powder manu- 
factured, we understand, from coal tar. This destroyed a large 
proportion of the larvae, but we doubt whether it would kill the 
perfect insect ; it is, moreover, used in an undiluted form, which 
would render its cost greater than that of the Paris Green mixture, 
so we see no advantage in using it, although the fact of its being 
less poisonous may induce some to try it who are prejudiced 
against Paris Green, 

Ashes and Air-slacked Lime, we found, had been extensively 
used by many of the farmers on the frontier districts, but, so far 
as we could see or learn, without any perceptible results. 

Decoctions of Elder leaves, Dog-fennel, the roots of 
the Mandrake or May Apple, (Podophyllum peltatum), 
black-pepper, ashes, lime, and a variety of other applica- 
tions have been recommended. Many of the proposed 
remedies are simply ridiculous, while some are partially 
effective. Both lime and urine or uric acid have been 
used with good effect, but do not compare to Paris green. 

A correspondent of the Prairie Farmer, for July 3, 
1875, in whose signature — "T. of Iowa" — I recognize 
an old frien.d and intelligent observer, gives the following 
experience : 

I have had quite as good success in using the ingredients from 
which the green is made, as from the finished article, bought in 
paint and drug shops at 50 cents a pound, especially when the 
local demand is so great that it cannot be bought at all. The fol- 
lowing directions for making it are taken from Brande's Chemis- 
try : Dissolve two pounds of sulphate of copper, blue vitriol, (cost- 
ing 20 cents per lb., or 40 cents), in a gallon of hot water, keeping 
it in a stone jar. Dissolve in another large jar, one pound of white 
arsenic, (costing 10 cents), and two pounds of saleratus or pearl 
ash, (cost 20 cents), in forty-four pounds of hot water, stirring well, 
until thoroughly dissolved. These articles, costing 75 cents, will 
make about five pounds of Paris green, costing $2.50. I usually 
keep them in solution and mix in the proper proportions, one part 
of the first to five of the latter, as they are needed. The "green 
immediately begins to precipitate in a fine powder, and is much 
more convenient for use, in solution, than the dry article sold in 
the shops. 



68 POTATO PESTS. 

Before leaving this subject of poisonous applications, 
it may be well to say a few words about two other com- 
pounds that have been strongly recommended and adver- 
tised as such. One of these is advertised as " Potato 
Pest Poison," by the Lodi Chemical Works of Lodi, N. J. 
It is put up in pound packages, which are sold at $1 
each, with directions to dissolve four ounces in two quarts 
of hot water, then pour into a barrel containing thirty 
gallons of cold water, and use on the vines in as fine a 
spray as possible. Analysis shows it to be composed of 
one part of pure salt and one part of arsenic (arseniate of 
soda), and it has the general color and appearance of 
common salt. I had this poison tested in a field of late 
potatoes, which had been badly infested during the Sum- 
mer, but of which about half the vines had been saved 
by pretty constant hand-picking. These were at the time 
fairly covered with theinsect in the egg y larva, and beetle 
states. Five rows where treated with the poison, both 
according to directions and by finely sprinkling the dry 
powder over the vines. As soon as the powder touched 
the larvse, they writhed and became restless, as with pain, 
the powder dissolved and formed a translucent coating 
upon them, and in about three hours they began to die. 
The beetles were not so easily affected, though they too 
were in time killed by it. Used as directed, it destroys, 
but hardly as efficiently as the ordinary Paris green mix- 
tare. A pound of Paris green, costing much less than 
a pound of the Lodi poison, will go nearly as far in pro- 
tecting a field of potatoes, and I cannot see any advantage 
to the farmer from the employment of a patent poisonous 
compound, of the nature of which he is ignorant, when a 
cheaper one is at hand. The color of the Lodi poison is 
also very objectionable, as there is much more danger in 
the use of poisons, when their color renders them un- 
distinguishable from ordinary salt. The second is a patent 
"pest poison," gotten up by the Kearney Chemical 



COLORADO rOTATO-BEETLE. 69 

Works, N. Y., and extensively advertised for this par- 
ticular insect. It is a prototype of the preceding, con- 
sisting of arsenate of sodium and common salt, faintly 
colored with rosaniline, and it acts in a similar manner. 
It is put up in a J | 2 lb. package, for 50c, which is to be 
dissolved in 60 gallons of water, and all that has been 
said of the Lodi poison is true of it. 

THE USE OF PARIS GREEN. 

As this mineral has now come into general use for the 
Colorado Potato-beetle, and likewise for the Cotton Worm 
and various other insects ; and as it is a virulent poison, 
the question as to its safety for the purpose here recom- 
mended is a very important one. It was my lot to be 
largely instrumental in causing its now general use for 
the two insects mentioned, and the position which I took 
from the first has been justified by the facts, which are 
herewith presented, and which will serve to dissipate much 
misapprehension. 

Past Experience. — In the early history of the use of 
this mineral as an insecticide, most persons, myself in- 
cluded, were loth, on theoretical grounds, to recommend 
its general use ; and I have ever insisted that the many 
other mechanical and preventive measures, which, if per- 
sistently employed, are sufficient to defeat the foe, should 
be resorted to in preference. But the more diluted form 
and improved methods now-a-days employed in using the 
poison, render it a much safer remedy than it was a few 
years back ; and no one should fail to take into account 
that during the past seven or eight years, millions of 
bushels of potatoes have been raised, the leaves of which 
have been most thoroughly sprinkled with the Paris 
green mixture, without any injurious effect to the tuber, 
or to persons using potatoes raised in this manner. In- 
deed, scarcely anypotatoes have been raised in the Middle 
States during these years, without its use ; yet I have to 



70 POTATO PESTS. 

learn of tlio first authentic case of poisoning or injury 
whatever, except through carelessness and exposure to its 
direct influence. So far as experience goes, therefore, 
there is nothing to fear from the judicious usaof the 
mineral. Let us then consider, from the best authority, 
what are the effects of its use as at present recommended: 
First, on the plant itself ; second, on the soil ; third, on 
man, indirectly, either through the soil or through the 
plant. 

Its Influence on the Plant. — Practically the effect of 
sprinkling a plant with Paris green, will depend very 
much on the amount used and on the character of the 
plant treated. Thus, from experiments which I made in 
1872, a thorough coating of a mixture of one part of 
green to fifteen of flour, while injuring some of the 
leaves of peas, clover, and sassafras, had no injurious 
effect on young oaks, maples, and hickories, or on cab- 
bage and strawberries ; while the fact has long been 
known that when used too strong and copiously it destroys 
potato vines. It is for this reason that the experiments 
that were made in 1874 on beets, by a committee ap- 
pointed by the Potomac Fruit Grower's Society, are of 
little value, as against the universal experience of the 
farmers of the Mississippi Valley. The mixture used by 
the committee, and which they call " highly diluted," 
consisted of one part of green with but six of the dilutent, 
instead of from twenty-five to thirty parts of the latter ; 
and it is no wonder that, as reported by the committee, 
the vitality of the plant was seriously impaired. There 
can be no question, therefore, about the injurious effect 
of the green upon potato vines, when it is used pure or 
but slightly diluted ; yet in this case, since it is the office 
of the leaves to expire rather than inspire, we cannot say 
that the plant is injured, or killed by absorption, any 
more than if it were killed by hot water, which, according 
to the degree to which it is heated, or the copiousness of 



COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 71 

the application, may either be used with impunity or 
with fatal effects. Indeed, judging from my own ex- 
perience, I very much incline to believe that future care- 
ful experiments will show that injury to the leaf by the 
application of this compound, arises more often from the 
stoppage of the stomata, which is effected as much by the 
diluent as by the arsenite itself. So much for the in- 
fluence of the poison when coming in contact with the 
plant above ground. The question as to how it affects 
the plant below ground, through the roots, may be con- 
sidered in connection with — 

Its Influence on the Soil — As Prof. S. W. Johnson, 
in an able review of the subject, stated two years ago : * 
"One pound of pure Paris green contains about ten 
ounces of white arsenic, and about four ounces of cop- 
per; 5 ' or, to state it in the usual way, Schweinfurt or 
pure Paris green contains fifty-eight per cent, of arsenious 
acid. One pound of the green uniformly spread over an 
acre of soil, would amount to sixteen-hundredths of 
a grain per square foot, or nine-hundredths of a grain 
of arsenious acid. If uniformly mixed with the soil to the 
depth of a foot, it would, of course, be the same to the 
cubic foot. In actual practice, even this amount does 
not reach the soil direct or in an unchanged form, since 
much of it is acted upon by the digestive organs of the 
fated insects. It is safe to say that even if the green re- 
tained for all time its poisonous power and purity in the 
soil, this mere fractional part of a grain might be added 
annually for half a century without any serious effects to 
the plants. In reality, however, there is no reason to be- 
lieve that it does so remain. Of the few experiments on 
record which bear on this point, those made by Prof. R. 
0. Kedzie, of the Michigan Agricultural College, in 1872, 
arc most interesting and instructive. In a paper read 
before the Natural History Society of the College, he 

* New York Tribune, December 16, 1874, 



72 POTATO PESTS. 

proved, from these experiments, that where water was 
charged with carbonie acid or ammonia, a certain portion 
of the green was dissolved, but was quickly converted in- 
to an insoluble and harmless precipitate with the oxide of 
iron which exists very generally in soils. Meek has shown 
(Zeitschrift fur Biologie, Bd. viii, s. 455, 1872), that 
arsenious acid in contact with moist organic substances, 
especially starch sizing, forms arseniuretted hydrogen, 
which diffuses in the air, and it is more than probable 
that the green used in our fields will lose its poisonous 
power, and disappear in these and other ways. The 
question as to how the plant is affected by the poison 
through the soil is, therefore, partly answered by the 
above facts. Water is both the universal solvent and the 
vehicle by which all plants appropriate their nourishment ; 
but in this instance its solvent and carrying power is for 
the most part neutralized by the oxide of iron in the soil; 
and though some experiments by Dr. E. W. Davy, and 
quoted by Prof. Johnson in the article already cited, 
would indicate that, under certain circumstances, some 
of the arsenious acid may be taken up by plants before 
passing into the insoluble combination ; yet the quantity 
is evidently very slight. 

Moreover, all doubt as to the danger to the tuber, to 
the soil, or to man, indirectly, was set at rest, by a further 
series of thorough experiments made by Prof. Kedzie in 
1875, from which he concludes : 1st, Paris green that has 
been four months in the soil no longer remains as such, 
but has passed in some less soluble state, and is unaffect- 
ed by the ordinary solvents of the soil. 2nd, When ap- 
plied in small quantities, such as alone are necessary in 
destroying injurious insects, it does not affect the health 
of the plant. 3rd, The power of the soil to hold arseni- 
ous acid and arsenites in insoluble form, will prevent 
water from becoming poisoned, unless the green is used 
in excess of any requirement as an insecticide. 



COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 73 

These experiments of Prof. Kedzie's accord, so far as 
they refer to the influence of Paris green on man through 
the plants, with others by Prof. McMurtrie, of the De- 
partment of Agriculture, which showed that even where 
the green was applied to the soil in such quantities as to 
cause the wilting or death of the plants, the most rigor- 
ous chemical analysis could detect no trace of arsenic in 
the composition of the plants themselves. 

Some persons have imagined that the soggy and watery 
potatoes that have been so common of late years, are due 
to the influence of this poison ; but this idea is proved to 
be erroneous by the fact that such imperfect potatoes are 
not confined to the districts were Paris green has been 
used. Indeed, they are much more likely due to the in- 
jury and defoliation of the plant by the insect ; for no 
plant can mature a healthy tuber when its leaf system is 
so seriously impaired by the constant gnawings of insects. 
Finally we must not forget that both arsenic and copper 
are widely distributed throughout the inorganic world* 
and are found naturally in many plants ; and so far from 
injuring plants, in minute quantities, arsenic occurs in 
the best superphosphates and the volcanic soil around 
Naples, which, like all volcanic soils, contains an unusual 
amount of it, has the reputation of being a specific against 

* Prof. Johnson, (loc. cit.) writes : 

u The wide distribution of both arsenic and copper is well known to mineral- 
ogists and chemists. These metals are dissolved in the waters of many famous 
mineral springs, as those of Vichy and Wiesbaden. Prof. Hardin found in the 
Rockbridge Alum Springs of Virginia, arsenic, antimony, lead, copper, zinc, 
cobalt, nickel, manganese, and iron. The arsenic, however, was present in ex- 
ceedingly minute quantity. Even river water, as that of the Nile, contains an 
appreciable quantity of arsenic. Dr. Will, the successor of Liebig, at Giessen, 
proved the existence of five poisonous metals in the water of the celebrated 
mineral springs of Rippoldsau, in Baden. In the Joseph's Spring he found 
to 10,000,000 parts of water, arsenic (white), 6 parts ; tin oxide 1-4 part ; anti- 
mony oxide, 1-6 part ; lead oxide, 1-4 part ; copper oxide, 1 part. Arsenic and 
copper have been found in a multitude of iron ores, in the sediments of chaly- 
beate springs, in clays, marls and cultivated soils. But we do not hear that the 
arsenic thus widely distributed in waters and soils ever accumulates in plant or 
animal to a deleterious extent.'" 

4 



74 POTATO PESTS. 

fungus diseases in plants. A certain quantity may there- 
fore be beneficial to plants, as it appears to be to ani- 
mals, since horses fed on a grain or two a day are said to 
thrive and grow fat. 

Its Influence on Man indirectly through the Soil or 
through the Plant. — The green as now used could not 
well collect in sufficient quantities to be directly deleteri- 
ous to man in the field in any imaginary way, and this 
statement is borne out by Prof. Kedzie's experiments ; 
while its injury through the plant is, I think, out of the 
question ; for the plant could not absorb enough without 
being killed. The idea that the earth is being sown with 
death by those who fight the Colorado Potato-beetle with 
this mineral, may, therefore, be dismissed as a pure phan- 
tasmagoria. 

In conclusion, while no one denies the danger attend- 
ing the careless use of Paris green, and all who have re- 
commended its use have not hesitated to caution against 
such carelessness, a careful inquiry into the facts from 
the experimental side bears out the results of a long and 
extensive experience among the farmers of the country 
— viz : that there is no present or future danger from its 
judicious use, in the diluted form, whether as liquid or 
powder, in which it is now universally recommended. 
It is in this as in so many other things, a proper use of 
the poison has proved, and will prove in future, a great 
blessing to the country, where its abuse can only be fol- 
lowed by evil consequences. Poison is only a relative 
term, and that which is most virulent in large quantities 
is oftentimes harmless or even beneficial to animal econo- 
my in smaller amounts. The farmers will look forward 
with intense interest to the work of the committee ap- 
pointed by the National Academy, or of any national 
commission appointed to investigate the subject, and will 
hail with joy and gratitude any less dangerous remedy 
that will prove as effectual ; but until that is discovered, 



COLOr.ADO POTATO-BEETLE. 75 

they will continue to use that which has saved them so 
much labor and given so much satisfaction. I would 
therefore say to those agriculturists of the East who are in 
any way alarmed by what has been written on this sub- 
ject, and who hesitate to use the Paris green mixture — 
profit by the experience of your more western brethren, 
and do not allow the voracious Doryphora to destroy your 
potatoes w r hen so simple and cheap a remedy is at hand. 
In case of direct poisoning from carelessness or what- 
ever cause, it will be well to state here that the antidote 
for Paris green poison is hydrated sesquioxide of iron. 
Nearly every druggist keeps it always on hand. If it can 
not be bought, it may be prepared thus : Dissolve cop- 
peras in hot water, keep warm, and add nitric acid until 
the solution becomes yellow ; then pour in ammonia wa- 
ter — common hartshorn — or a solution of carbonate of 
ammonia, until a brown precipitate falls. Keep this 
precipitate moist and in a tightly corked bottle. A few 
spoonfuls taken soon after even a bad case of poisoning 
with Paris green or arsenic is a perfect remedy. 

BOGUS EXPEEMEKTS. 

It was once reported to me that a neighbor had suc- 
ceeded in driving away all his potato bugs by strewing 
elder branches among the vines. I went to examine the 
field and found my friend enthusiastic over his discovery; 
and indeed though the vines were nearly devoured, there 
were but a few full grown larvse to be found. But, as he 
could not tell us what had become of the " slugs," I un- 
dertook to show him where they had gone, and after dig- 
ging a few moments with a trowel, unearthed dozens of 
them, the majority in the pupa, but a few yet in the 
larva state. He had, in fact, been misled by appearances, 
for want of better knowledge of his enemy. The larvaa 
as they acquired their growth suddenly became so destruc- 
tive, that to save his vines he was obliged to try some 



76 POTATO PESTS. 

means of killing them, and as an experiment lie tried the 
elder. The larvse were just ready to disappear of their 
own accord, and as the great bulk of them did really dis- 
appear in two or three days after the application, the ap- 
parently logical inference was made that they had been 
driven away by the smell of the elder. 

How many of the published remedies that flood the 
country owe their origin to just such defective proof 

ALAEM ABOUT THE INSECT ABKOAD. 

In 1871, speaking of the eastward march of this insect, 
I wrote as follows: " Indeed, it is quite possible that even 
the broad Atlantic may not stay its course ; but that 
when once the beetles swarm in the streets of New York 
as they did in those of St. Louis last spring, some female, 
loaded with fertile eggs, and hidden in the nooks and 
crannies of some vessel, may be safely borne over to the 
land of ' murphies/ where she might easily found a colony 
which would soon spread consternation into other potato- 
growing countries to the eastward. In giving, through 
Sir Walter Ealeigh, the precious tuber to Europe, Ameri- 
ca conferred upon the Old World an everlasting boon. 
She may yet unwittingly be the means of bequeathing as 
great a bane, by sending across the ocean the deadliest 
enemy of that tuber ! At all events, it behooves our Eu- 
orpean neighbors to be on the look-out, and to prevent, 
if possible, any such catastrophe." 

In December, 1872, Col. Fred. Hecker, of Summer- 
field, Illinois, the well-known and enthusiastic political 
agitator and tribune, sent to the Gartenlaule (Heft 3, 
1873,) an article on this insect. The article was a con- 
densation, and in some parts a literal translation from 
my Reports, my figures being copied to illustrate it. It 
was afterwards re-translated and the illustrations re-copied 
(and accuracy is not apt to increase with these processes, 
and certainly did not in these instances), for several 



COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 77 

English journals, over the signature " Fr. H., State of 
Illinois" Some of the articles in the English periodicals 
on this "new enemy of the potato" close with the advice 
that " in the importation of seed of American potatoes, 
which is now carried on to a very large extent, the utmost 
caution should be exercised to prevent the introduction 
of the beetle to this country." 

Indeed, Mr. J. Algernon Clarke, Secretary of the Cen- 
tral Chamber of Agriculture, on the 10th of February, 
1874, addressed a letter to Mr. Gladstone, calling his at- 
tention to the imminent risk to which the United King- 
dom, especially Ireland, is exposed, and went so far as to 
suggest that the importation of potatoes from the United 
States and British America should at once be prohibited. 

In 1874 the governments of Belgium, France, Switzer- 
land and Germany prohibited the importation of American 
potatoes, and Italy, the Netherlands, and Great Britain, 
which had been urgently solicited to follow their example, 
began seriously inquiring into the necessities of the case. 

The British Government was naturally slow to take such 
stringent steps, which would more deeply affect it than 
the other nations mentioned, since Great Britain does the 
larger trade in American potatoes. In reply to Mr. Her- 
bert, M. P. , for Kerry, who asked the Chief Secretary for 
Ireland, whether Her Majesty's government had taken 
any steps to prevent the introduction of the insect, Sir 
M. M. Beach sought to abate fear, rather underrated the 
danger, and wisely concluded that any interference with 
the trade, should first have the most careful consideration. 
Those who had watched the insect's gradual spread dur- 
ing the past seventeen or eighteen years, from its native 
Eocky Mountain Home to the Atlantic ; and had seen 
how the lakes, instead of hindering its march into Cana- 
da, really accelerated that march by affording carriage on 
vessels, rafters, and other floating objects, could have no 



78 POTATO PESTS. 

doubt that tliero was cause for the danger felt by our 
transatlantic friends. 

Yet the opinion had been repeatedly expressed by the 
writer — and very generally coincided in by all who had 
any familiarity with the insect's economy — that when it 
made its advent into Europe it would most likely be car- 
ried in the perfect beetle state on some vessel plying 
between the two continents. For while the beetle, es- 
pecially in the non-growing season, will live for months 
without food, the larva would perish in a few days with- 
out fresh potato tops, and would, I believe, starve to death 
in the midst of a barrel of potatoes, even if it could get 
there without being crushed ; for while it so voraciously 
devours the leaves it will not touch the tubers. The eggs, 
which are quite soft and easily crushed, could, of course, 
only be carried over on the haulm or on the living plant ; 
and while there is a bare possibility of the insect's trans- 
mission in this way, there is little probability of it, since 
the plants are not objects of commercial exchange, and 
the haulm, on account of its liability to rot, is not, so 
far as I can learn, used to any extent in packing. Be- 
sides, potatoes are mostly exported during that part of 
the year when there are neither eggs, larva?, nor potato 
vines in existence, in the United States. There is only 
one other possible way of transmission, and that is in 
sufficiently large lumps of earth, either as larva, pupa, or 
beetle. ISTow, if the American dealers be required to 
carefully avoid the use of the haulm or shaw, and to 
ship none but clean potatoes, as free as possible from 
earth, the insect's transmission among the tubers will be 
rendered impossible ; and when such precautions arc so 
easily taken there can be no advantage in the absolute 
prohibition of the traffic in American potatoes. As well 
prohibit traffic in a dozen other commodities, in many of 
which the insect is as likely to be taken over, as in pota- 
toes, and in some of which it is even more likely to be 



COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 79 

transported. The course recently adopted by the German 
government in accordance with the suggestion made in 
my 6 th Keport, is much more rational, and will prove a 
much better safeguard : It is to furnish vessels plying 
between the two countries with cards giving illustrated 
descriptions of the insect in all stages, with the request 
that passengers and crew destroy any stray specimens that 
may be found. England and Ireland, together with the 
other European governments, should co-operate with Ger- 
many in this plan, and have such a card posted in the 
warehouses of seaport towns, and the meeting rooms of 
agricultural societies ; and a possible evil will be much 
more likely avoided. 

While some Europeans have thus been unduly alarmed, 
and inclined to take proscriptive measures to prevent 
the insect's introduction, others have ridiculed the idea 
that the insect could get to Europe, one of them declaring 
that there is no more danger of the insect's chance trans- 
portation than of that of our rattlesnake. Considering 
that half the w r eeds of American agriculture, and a large 
proportion of her worst insect pests, including two bee- 
tles — viz : the Asparagus Beetle {Crioceris asparagi,) and 
the Elm Leaf -beetle, (Galeruca calmariensis) — in the very 
same family as our Doryphora, have been imported among 
us from Europe, there would seem poor foundation for 
such argument. Moreover, a number of other insects — 
among them some beetles — of less importance, may be 
included in the number of importations ; and the Rape 
Butterfly (Pieris rapes,) whose progress westward has been 
simultaneous with the Doryphora's eastward, and whose 
importation dates back but a few years, gives proof of the 
fact that insects more delicate and with fewer chances 
of transport than Doryphora, may succeed in getting alive 
from one country to the other, and in gaining a foot- 
hold in the new home. Indeed, the reported occurrence 
last summer of a living beetle in the Bremen docks, in a 



80 rOTATO TESTS. 

cargo just from New York, is the best evidence ; it effec- 
tually sets at rest the arguments alluded to, and bears 
out the views I have on several occasions expressed as to 
the possibility of the beetles being carried over in vessels. 
It is argued by others that on the continent of Europe 
our Doryphora would not thrive if introduced, and in a 
recent letter received from M. Oswald de Kerchove, of 
(land, Belgium, author of an interesting pamphlet on 
the insect,* that gentleman says : " I do not think that 
tlio Doryphora, awakened by our early warm weather, 
could resist the effects of the late cold which we arc apt 
to have in these European countries." The idea that 
the climate of North America is less extreme than that 
o[ Europe is rather novel to us of the cisatlantic; and 
from a sufficiently long residence in England, France, and 
Germany, I am decidedly of the opinion that they delude 
themselves who suppose that Doryphora could not thrive 
in the greater part of Europe ; and that to abandon all 
precautionary measures against its introduction on such 
grounds would be the hight of folly. An insect which 
has spread from the high table lands of the Rocky Moun- 
tains across the Mississippi Valley to the Atlantic, and 
that nourishes alike in the States of Minnesota, Wiscon- 
sin, Upper Canada, and Maine ; and in Maryland, Virginia 
and Texas— in fact, wherever the potato succeeds — will 
not likely be discomfited in the potato-growing districts 
of Europe. 

• The more serious and weighty reasons against the pos- 
sibility of acclimatization, have been urged by II. W. 
Bates, F. L. S., in a Memoir, published in 1875, in the 
Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, 
(Vol. XI, Part II). lie argues firstly, that no American 
beetle has been acclimated in Europe, though several 
European species arc known to have been in America ; 

* VBnnml dc la Vommc do Terre, etc., Bruxellcs, 1375. 



COLORADO POTATO-BEETLIS. 81 

secondly, that the group to which Doryphora belongs is 
not represented in Europe, and is remarkably restricted 
to elevated plateaux in the interior of this continent, and 
range toward the tropics rather than toward the north ; 
thirdly, that the insect has not passed west of the divid- 
ing ridge of the liocky Mountains, or got foothold on 
the Pacific Coast, which in climate more nearly resembles 
Western Europe. 

Mr. Bates lays some stress on the fact that few Ameri- 
can plants and insects have been acclimated in Europe, 
citing only the Common Water Weed, (Anacharis Cana- 
densis), which has spread through their ponds and canals, 
and the Grape Phylloxera, which has done so much injury 
to French vineyards. He also says that no American 
beetle has become acclimated. While it is true that we 
have received many more species than we have given, 
enough more of our insects and plants have established 
themselves there to weaken the force of the objection. 
The Horse Weed, (Erigeron Canadense), and the Grape 
Mildew, {Oidium TucJceri), may be added to the plants ; 
our common White Ant, ( Terniesflavipes), has done much 
damage in some parts of Germany ; the Woolly Aphis, or 
American Blight, (Eriosonia pyri), is quite a pest in Eng- 
land and on the Continent ; a minute yellow ant, (Myr- 
mica molesta), which so annoys our housekeepers, has, 
according to Fr. Smith, been naturalized, and is very 
troublesome in England ; while at least two of our 
beetles, viz., the Pea Weevil, (Bruchus pisi), and the 
American Meal Worm, {Tenebrio obscurus), have been 
naturalized in Europe — the former doing some damage in 
S. France ; the latter being quite widespread and now 
sent back in about equal numbers with the European 
Meal Worm, {Tenebrio molilor), by those who make a 
business of rearing the worms for bird fanciers. 

There is some force in all these arguments, but Mr. 
Bates does not sufficiently appreciate the exceptional 



83 POTATO PESTS. 

adaptive and migrating powers which the species has 

exhibited. There are hundreds of N. American insects — 
and some of the most injurious too — which no one fears 
will ever reach Europe or establish themselves there, be- 
cause they are restricted, and have for years been restricted 
to certain geographical areas. They have exhibited no 
especial powers of adaptation to new conditions. But 
our Potato-beetle forms one of those exceptional cases 
mentioned in the introduction. We mark and note the 
exceptional vitality though we cannot give a reason for it. 
Why has Doryphora 10-lineata overrun the country and 
become such a pest while its scarcely distinguishable con- 
gener, Doryphora juncta, feeding on the same genus of 
plants, has proved incapable of that adaptation, and re- 
mained harmless ? Whatever the reason, the fact weakens 
the force of all generalizations based on geographical 
distribution. The reasons why the species has not passed 
west of the Rocky Mountains, find, also, their best ex- 
planation in the facts already mentioned in considering 
the causes which limit its spread. 

The possibility of its importation alive is now establish- 
ed. I must think, with the facts before me, that the 
possibility of its acclimatization is equally great, especially 
in South Europe, That it would also hold its own in 
England and Ireland I have not 'much doubt. It will 
rather enjoy the more temperate climate ; for while it 
thrives best during comparatively dry seasons, both ex- 
cessive heat and drouth, as well as excessive wet, are pre- 
judicial to it. Let us hope that it never will become 
established in Europe, but that a sufficient knowledge of 
it will be desseminated there to cause the speedy detection 
and extermination of the few that may from time to time 
be carried over. Let the Europeans not neglect precau- 
tionary watchfulness, however, by virtue of the arguments 
of those who believe that the insect could not stand their, 
climate— lest they some day learn to their sorrow that 



COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 83 

they have needlessly underrated our Doryphora's tough- 
ness of constitution. 

NOMENCLATURE. 

The insect was first popularly designated as the " Ten- 
striped Spearman/' which is a translation of its technical 
name. That term has, however, been superceded by the 
name employed in this work, not because it was numerous 
in Colorado, but because it was first found there by ento- 
mologists long before it had advanced to any of the 
States to the East. There are hundreds of insects that 
in like manner take their name from .some particular 
district where first discovered, though they often after- 
wards prove to be far more common in other districts. 

Of course the American reader need not be informed 
of the fact that the insect has been universally known, 
since it attained popular notoriety, by the scientific name of 
Dorypliora 10-lineata, Say. American coleopterists have 
from the first been fully aware that it differed from the 
typical genus Dorypliora, in lacking the point produced on 
the mesosternum (middle of breast), which is characteristic 
of that genus as defined by its founder, Olivier. Yet as 
this character is of secondary importance, and by no 
means of generic value, in many other families of Cole- 
optera, and as our insect in other characters, and especially 
in the short and transverse form of the maxillary palpi, 
approaches nearer to the genus Doryphora than to any 
other germs of the sub-family, (fJhrysomeUdes), the 
father of American Entomology, Thomas Say, described 
it under that genus. Subsequent American authorities, 
including Dr. LeConte, have followed this enlarged de- 
finition of the genus Doryphora, considering the palpial 
of much more value than the sternal characters ; and 
Say's name has consequently been universally adopted in 
this country both by popular and technical writers. The 
genus Chrysomela of Linnaeus has been made the ba 



84 . POTATO PESTS. 

several minor divisions, which are considered to be of 
generic value or not, according to the opinions of differ- 
ent systematists. Thus Melsheimer in his catalogue of 
N. A. Ooleoptera (1853) refers our Potato-beetle to the 
genus Polygramma, erected by the French entomologist 
Chevrolat, upon unimportant colorational characters. 
Subsequently, the Sweedish entomologist Stal, in a Mono- 
graph of the American Chrysomelides,* erected the genus 
Myocorina\ on the slightly compressed form of the anten- 
nal club, for our Potato-beetle, and several other species 
from Texas and Mexico, while still later Leptinotarsa\ 
was proposed by the same author. Until some yet dis- 
tant day when the science of entomology shall be per- 
fected, there will be a constant chopping and changing in 
generic nomenclature, (much of it of questionable war- 
rant or advantage), and it is oftentimes preferable, especi- 
ally in popular works, to anchor to the more comprehen- 
sive and better known generic terms, instead of confound- 
ing the reader by the more recent changes. There is 
nothing to prevent any author from erecting new genera, 
but whether a proposed genus is in the end by common 
consent adopted or not will depend on the value of the 
characters on which it is founded. Our best authorities 
ignore the more recent divisions, and LeConte writes me : 
" Let us set our faces against the adoption of the multi- 

* Trans. Sweedish Academy, 1858, p. 316. 

+ Myocoryna was already used by Dejean in the same Family. 

X An examination which I was permitted to make in 1875 of the admirable 
and extensive collection of Chrysomelidae belonging to Mr. H. W. Bates, of 
London, shows that the tibial groove on which Stiil founds his new genus 
Leptinotarsa, to which our Potato-beetle is referred, and under which it is 
published in Gemminger and Harold's Catalogue, is really of no generic value. 
Several genuine Doryphorae with the sternal spine fully developed have it in 
varying degree, and in concatenate!,, (Fabr.) it is even more conspicuous than in 
10-lineata. I fully agree with "Dr. LeConte, that if any character has value in 
separating 10-lineata, it is the form of the palpi which ally it more to Dory- 
phoraih&n to Chrysomela, and make of it, with a few others, a natural group 
in that genus, distinguished by peculiar coloration and want of development 
of the sternal spine. 



COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 85 

tude of genera, which even the founders fail to sustain. 
* * * Let Polygramma, Leptinotarsa, Myocoryna, etc., 
never be mentioned amongst us." Thence, if we write 
Clirysomela 10-lineata (Say), with Crotch, in his list of 
N". A. Coleoptera (1873), 'w r e indicate that in our opinion 
the later divisions into which that genus has been broken 
up, and which would include this species, are not based 
on sufficiently important and distinctive characters ; if 
we write Doryphora 10-lineata, Say, we express our belief 
in the generic value of the palpial characters. In either 
event no confusion will ensue providing the authority for 
the species is given, and the American entomologist does 
no violence either to good sense or propriety by desig- 
nating the insect as it was first described, i. e., Doryphora 
10-lineata. It is because of the present unsettled con- 
dition of entomological nomenclature that the custom 
yet prevails of attaching the abbreviated authority to the 
names of insects, as the only sure way to express our 
meaning and obviate all confusion as to the species in- 
tended. 

THE BOGUS COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 

(Doryphora juncta, Germar.) 

It was at one time quite generally believed that the Colo- 
rado Potato-beetle had always existed in the lower Missis- 
sippiValley, for the simple reason that a similar species, 
the Bogus Colorado Potato-beetle, (Doryphora juncta, 
Germar), was confounded with it. This species has exist- 
ed in the South and Southwest, feeding upon the Horse- 
nettle, (Solatium Carolinense), a plant which is exceed- 
ingly abundant in some sections of the West. It has 
never yet been known to attack the cultivated potato, and 
in all likelihood never will do so, for as it has existed in 
the midst of the Potato for upwards of a century with- 
out ever having been known to attack the plant, it is not 
at all probable that it will do so at any future time. 



86 



POTATO PESTS. 



This insect so closely resembles Dorypliora 10-Kneata that 
even a practiced entomologist would at first sight be apt 
to confound the two. It will, therefore, be worth while 
to briefly point out the minute, but invariable character- 
istics which distinguish them both in the larval and per- 

[Fig. 37.] 




Bogus Colorado Potato-beetle.— a, a, eggs ; &, b, larvae ; c, beetle— natural 
size ; d, left wing cover, showing punctation ; e, leg— enlarged. 

feet states. I first discovered the larva of juncta, and 
reared the beetle from it in 1864, at Columbus, Ky., and 
the accompanying figure from drawings then made will 
serve to illustrate the differences, when compared with 
Fig. 2, in the fore part of the work. 

The eggs of 10-Kneata, (Fig. 2, a, a), are of a trans- 
lucent orange-red color, while those of junda, (Fig. 37, 
«, a,), are whitish, with a faint tinge of flesh-color, and 
still more translucent. The newly hatched larra of the 
former are of a dark Venetian-red, and they become 
lighter as they grow older, while the newly hatched larv93 
of the latter have the body as light as the full-grown indi- 
viduals.* 

In the full-grown larva of 10-Kneata, (Fig. 2, 5, 5,), 

* It is an interesting fact, that, as I have been able to ascertain by rearing 
juncta from the egg, its* newly hatched larva instead of having the light yellow 
head and the single row of spots of the mature individuals, has a brown 
head and two rows of spots, the lower being less distinct than the upper row, 
and placed exactly in the same position as the lower row on the mature larvaj 
of 10-lineata. This is a very pretty exemplification of a very general law which 
has a significant evolutionary bearing, that all the species of a genus resemble 
each other more and more as we go back to the beginning of individual life. 



COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 87 

the head is black, the first joint behind the head is pale 
and edged with black behind only ; there is a double row 
of black spots along the side of the body, and the legs 
are black, the ground-color of the body being of a Vene- 
tian-red. In the full-grown larva of juncta, (Fig. 37 b)> 
on the contrary, the head is of a pale color, the first joint 
behind the head reddish-brown and edged all round with 
black ; there is but a single row of black spots along the 
side of the body, and the legs are pale, while the ground 
color of the body is of a pale cream, tinged with pink or 
flesh color. Such are the distinguishing characteristics 
of the two larvse ; but it is an interesting fact that these 
characters are not always constant, and that the larvae of 
10-lineata, especially when they feed upon the Horse- 
nettle, are sometimes almost as pale as jimcta, and have 
the lower row of black spots more or less obsolete. The 
pupa of jimcta is also the palest. 

Now let us see what are the differences in the perfect 
beetle state of these two insects. Indeed, so minute are 
the differences, that in a drawing of the natural size, it 
is scarcely possible to exhibit them, but with the greatly 
enlarged leg and wing-case of each species, which are 
given in the foregoing figures, we shall readily be enabled 
to do so. Fig. 2, d> d, exhibits the true Colorado Potato- 
beetle ; Fig. 37, c, the Bogus Colorado Potato-beetle, each 
of its natural size. Fig. 2. e 9 shows the left wing-case 
enlarged, and Fig. 2,/, an enlarged leg of the former ; 
Fig. 37, d, the left wing-case enlarged, and Fig. 37, e, an 
enlarged leg of the latter. On a close inspection it will 
be perceived that in the former, (Fig. 2, #,), the boundary 
of each dark stripe on the wing-cases, especially toward 
the middle, is studded with confused and irregular punc- 
tations, partly inside and partly outside the edge of the 
dark stripe ; that it is the third and fourth dark stripes, 
counting from the outside, that are united behind ; and 
that in the lei* both the knees and the feet are black. In 



88 POTATO PESTS. 

the latter, (Fig. 37, d), on the contrary, the dark stripes 
are accurately edged by a single regular row of punctations 
placed in a groove (stria) ; it is the second and third 
stripes — not the third and fourth — counting from the 
outside, that are united behind, the space between them 
being almost always brown ; and the leg is entirely pale, 
except a black spot on the middle of the front of the 
thigh. 

The spots on the thorax, in either of the above two 
species, are normally eighteen in number, arranged in the 
same very peculiar pattern which may be seen both in 
Fig. 2, d, d, and in Fig. 37, c ; and precisely the same 
variations in this complicated pattern occur in either 
species. 



OTHER INSECT FOES. 89 



OTHER INSECT FOES OF THE POTATO. 

We often see paragraphs in the papers, stating that 
" THE Potato Bug" has been very abundant and destruc- 
tive in such a month and at such and such a place. Ac- 
companying these statements, remarks are frequently 
added, that "THE Potato Bug" is preyed upon by such 
and such insects, so that we may soon expect to see it 
swept from off the face of the earth ; and that, even if 
this desirable event should not take place, "THE Potato 
Bug" may be checked and controlled by such and such 
remedies. 

Do the worthy men, who indite these notable para- 
graphs, ever consider for one moment, that there are over 
a dozen distinct insects preying upon the potato plant 
within the limits of the United States ? That many of 
these species are confined within certain geographical 
limits ? That the habits and history of several of them 
differ as widely as those of a hog and a horse ? That some 
attack the potato both in the larva state and in the per- 
fect or winged state ; others in the perfect or winged state 
alone ; and others again in the larva state alone ? That 
in the case of eight of these insects there is but one single 
brood every year, while of the remaining three there are 
every year from two to three broods, each of them gener- 
ated by females belonging to the preceding brood ? That 
nine feed externally upon the leaves and more tender 
stems of the plant, while two of them burrow, like a 
borer, exclusively in the larger stalks ? Finally, that 
almost every one of them has its peculiar insect enemies ; 
and that a mode of attack, which will prove very success- 
ful against one, two, or three of them, will often turn 
out to be utterly worthless, when employed against the 
remainder ? 



90 



POTATO PESTS. 



It is true that at the present time the Colorado Potato- 
beetle has come to be very generally known by the above 
vague term, but the existence of the other species, which 
are also frequently dubbed by the same name, is a suffi- 
cient reason for greater explicitness. It will be a fitting 
conclusion to this little work to briefly indicate the habits 
and nature of the more destructive of the remaining in- 
sect foes of the Potato. 

the stalk-borer {Gortyna nit ela, Guen.) 

[Ord. Lepidoptera ; Fam. Apamid^e.] 

This larva (Fig. 38 2) ) is of a livid hue when young, 
with light stripes along the body, as shown in the figure. 

[Fig. 38.] 




X 2 

Goetyna nitela.— Moth and immature larva. 

When full-grown it generally becomes lighter, with the 
longitudinal lines broader, and at this time it more fre- 
[Fig. 39.] quently resembles Fig. 39. It 

commonly burrows in the large 
stalks of the Potato ; but is 
not peculiar to that plant, as 
it occurs also in the stalks of 
the Tomato, and in those of 
the Dahlia, Aster, Lily, Spirea, Salvia, and other garden 
flowers. I have likewise found it boring through the cob 
of growing Indian corn, and strangely confining itself to 
that portion of the ear : though it is likewise found 
occasionally in the stem of that plant ; also in the soft 
stems of Milkweed, Castor bean, Rhubarb, Chenqpodium, 




Gobtyna nitela— Mature larva. 



OTHER INSECT FOES. 91 

Eupatorium, and in the twigs of Peach and of Currant. 
By way of compensation, it is particularly partial to the 
stem of the common Cocklebur (Xanthium strumarium) ; 
and if it would only confine itself to such noxious weeds 
as this, it might be considered as a friend instead of an 
enemy. 

Never haying found this worm earlier than June or 
July, nor obtained the moth from the very earliest matured 
ones, until the latter part of August and fore part of Sep- 
tember, the insect must necessarily be single-brooded, the 
egg requiring longer to hatch, and the larva longer to 
develop than of many other moths. Leaving the stalk in 
which they have burrowed the latter part of July, the 
worms descend a little below the surface of the ground 
and in three days become chrysalides. These are of the 
normal form, with two fine bristles at the extremity of 
the body, usually closed so as to form a point, but readily 
opened V-shaped at the will of the insect, as with hun- 
dreds of others of the same group. I have had the moth 
issue as early as the 30th of August, and as late as the 
26th of September, and in one instance it emerged dur- 
ing a freezing night, being quite dull and numb at the 
time, thus showing beyond a doubt that the moths hyber- 
nate in a state of torpor, and then deposit their eggs, 
singly, on the plant destined for the worm, during the 
months of April and IVIay. This moth (Fig. 38, 1 ) is of 
a mouse-gray color with the front wings finely sprinkled 
with Naples-yellow, and having a very faint lilac-colored 
hue ; but distinguished mainly by an arcuated pale line 
running across their outer third. 

Kemedy — Prevention. — The careful florist, by an occa- 
sional close inspection of his plants about the beginning 
of July, may detect the point at which the borer entered, 
which is generally quite a distance from the ground, and 
can then cut it out without injury to the plant. As 
this is not feasible in a large potato field, care should be 



92 



POTATO PESTS. 



taken to prevent its attacks another year as far as it is 
possible to do so, by hunting for it wherever a vine is 
seen to suddenly wilt. 

the potato stalk- weevil (Baridius trinotatus, Say.) 

[Ord. Coleoptera ; Fam. Curculionid^e.] 

This insect is more particularly a Southern species, oc- 
curring abundantly in the Middle States, but, according 
to Dr. Harris, being totally unknown in New England.* 
It is sometimes so abundant in S. Illinois, and Missouri, 

that potato-patches 
are utterly ruined by 
it, the vines appear- 
ing as if scalded. 
The beetle (Fig. 4,0 c) 
is of a bluish or ash- 
gray color, distin- 
guished,, as its name 

Potato Stalk-weevil— a, larva ; &, pupa; c, beetle implies, by having 

- enlarged - three shiny black 

impressed spots at the lower edge of the thorax. The 
female deposits a single egg in an oblong slit about one- 
eighth inch long, which she has previously formed with 
her beak in the stalk of the potato. The larva subse- 
quently hatches out, and bores into the heart of the stalk, 
always proceeding downwards towards the root. When 
full grown, it is a little over one-fourth inch long (Fig. 
40, a), and is a soft whitish, legless grub, with a scaly 
head. Hence it can always be readily distinguished from 
the larva of the Stalk-borer, which has invariably sixteen 
legs, no matter how small it may be. Unlike this last 
insect, it becomes a pupa (Fig. 40, I) within the potato 




* This is evidently a mistake, as I have seen the species in Eastern collec- 
tions, and Mr. E. M. Wilson of West Dummerston, Vt., wrote me, Aug. 26, 187Q, 
that it was quite common in potato fields in Vermont, during that year. 



OTHER IXSECT FOES. 93 

stalk which it inhabits ; and it comes out in the beetle 
state about the last of August or the beginning of Sep- 
tember. The stalk inhabited by the larva almost always 
wilts and dies, and this wilting is first noticed in the lati- 
tude of St. Louis, about the first of July. So far as is 
at present known it attacks no other plant but the potato, 
and the perfect beetle,- like many other snout-beetles, 
must of course live through the winter to reproduce its 
species in the following spring. 

Remedy. — Same as with the foregoing species. Burn 
all the vines which wilt from its attacks — roots and all, 
for it almost always works below ground. The Stalk- 
borer must be searched for, if one will be sure of killing 
it as it leaves the stalk to transform ; but as this Stalk- 
weevil transforms within the vine, one may be pretty sure 
of destroying it by burning the vines when they first wilt. 

the potato or tomato-worm, (Sphinx 5-maculata, Haw.) 

[Ord. } Lepidopteea; Fam., Sphtsgidje.] 

This well known insect, the larva of which is herewith 
illustrated (Fig. 41, A), is usually called the Potato-worm, 
but it is far commoner on the closely allied tomato, the 
foliage of which it often clears off very completely in par- 
ticular spots in a single night. Many persons are afraid 
to handle this worm, from an absurd idea that it has the 
power of stinging with the horn on its tail. But this is 
a vulgar error, and the worm is totally incapable of doing 
any direct harm to man, either with the conspicuous horn 
on its tail, or with any hidden weapon that it may have 
concealed about its person. In fact, this dreadful look- 
ing horn is not peculiar to the Potato-worm, but is met 
with in almost all the larvas of the large and beautiful 
group to which it belongs. It seems to have no special 
use, but, like the bunch of hair on the breast of the tur- 
key cock, to be a mere ornamental appendage. 

When full-fed, which is usually about the last of Au- 



94 



POTATO PESTS. 




OTHER [NSBOT POl 95 

gust, the Potato-worm burrows under ground and shortly 
afterwards transforms into the pupa state (Fig. 41, J9). 
The pupa is often dug up in the spring from ground 
where tomatoes or potatoes were grown in the preoeding 
season ; and most persons that meet with it suppose that 
the singular, jug-handled appendage at ono end of it is 
its tail In reality, however, it is the tonguc-cas<\ and 
contains the long pliable tongue whioh the future moth 
will employ in lapping up the nectar of the flowers, before 
whioh, in the dusky gloom of some warm, balmy sum- 
mer's evening, it hangs for a few moments suspended in 
the air, like the glorified ghoskof some departed botanist. 

The moth itself (Fig. 4 U C) was formerly confounded 
with the Tobaooo^worm moth {Sphinx Oaf olina, Linnams), 
which indeed it very closely resembles, having the same 
scries of orange oolored spots on each side of the abdomen. 
The gray and black markings, however, of the wings dif- 
fer perceptibly in the two species; and in the Tobacco- 
worm moth there is always a more or less faint white spot 
or dot near the centre of the front wing, which is never 
mot with in the other species. My figure is somewhat 
darker than it should bo. In Connecticut and other 
Northern States where tobacco is grown, the Potato-worm 
often feeds upon the leaves of the tobacco plant, the truo 
Tofoacco-worm being unknown in those latitudes. In tho 
more southerly States, on the other hand, and in Mexico 
and in tho West Iudics, the true Potato-worm is unknown, 
and it is the Tobacco-worm that the tobacco growers have 
toflght; while in tho intermediate country both species 
may frequently be captured on the wing in the same gar- 
den and upon tho same evening. In other words, tho 
Potato-worm is a northern species, the Tobacco-worm a 
southern species ; but on the confines of the two distriots 
exclusively inhabited by each, they intermingle in vary- 
ing proportions, aooording to the latitude. 

Remedies. —This insect is so large and oonspiouous 



FOTATC 

that the most effectual mode of destroying it is by hand- 
picking. In destroying the worms in this manner care 
should be taken to leave alone all those specimens which 
one finds covered with little white oval cocoons, as these 
are the cocoons of little parasites* which materially assist 
ns in its subjugation. The worm is also infested with a 
Tachina maggot, the young of a fly {Exorista leucaniw), 
very much resembling LydcUa doryphora (Fig. 29) in ap- 
pearance and habit. 

Blister-Beetles. 

[Ord. Coleoptera; Earn. Melohle.] 

Certain elongate beetles, having the same form and 
belonging to the same family as the Spanish-fly or Can- 
tharis of commerce, have long been known to attack the 
Potato in different parts of the country, and the species 
become more numerous as we go AVest. These insects all 
agree in possessing vescicatory powers, and in their curi- 
ous life-history. Harris and many other writers believed 
that ^their larva? lived underground upon the roots of 
plants ; but it is now fully established that they agree 
with many other members of the family, as, for instance, 
the oil-beetles (genus Jfcloi'), in leading in their younger 
days a partly parasitic and partly predaceous life ; and 
when this is remembered, the fact that some of the beetles 
have been observed to feed upon Doryphora larvae, be- 
comes less surprising. The female Blister-beetle is very 
prolific, her abdomen greatly swelling in pregnancy. She 
lays her eggs in masses in the ground and carefully covers 
them up. These hatch in a few days into minute, light- 
brown, bristly creatures with six long legs, two long bris- 



* There are two distinct parasites which attack this worm, both species being 
very much of a size. One issues from the worm and spins a $mooth white silken 
cocoon which it fastens by one end to the skin of the worm, and in due time 
produces a fly which Mr. Norton informs me is an undescribed species of BIacu$, 
West. The other species forms an immense mass of loose woolly cocoons and 
produces an apparently undescribed species of Miavgaster. 



OTHER INSECT FOBS. 97 

tics at the tail, and prominent jaws. They run about 
with great activity, mount different composite flowers fre- 
quented by bees, throw themselves on to the bodies oi these 
whenever they get the chance, and by tenaciously cling- 
ing to their hirsute host, arc carried into its nest. Here, 
as the female bee is about to lay an egg in the cell pre- 
pared for it, the blister-beetle larva drops into the cell. 
Floating for awhile on the surface of the honey and feed- 
ing thereon, it molts a few times, each molt representing 
a loss of activity by reduction of the legs, until at last the 
active hexapod is changed into a clumsy legless maj 
which fastens to the bee-larva that had meanwhile devel- 
oped. In a short time this last is devoured, and then the 
blister-beetle larva goes through those curious transforma- 
tions known as hypermetamorphoses — the larva trans- 
forming to the pupa within its old skin, and the beetle 
finally issuing therefrom. The Oil-beetle (Melo'<) preys 
in this manner upon the common hive-bee, and aside 
from the injury done to the bee-brood, as just described, 
its larva) when first hatched sometimes so crowd on and 
worry the mature bees, as to cause death. The Blister- 
beetles, however, so far as we now know, prey only on our 
wild, solitary bees, sucli as those belonging to the genera 
Andrena and Ilalidus. 

With this brief glance at their precarious early life, I 
will give the reader a more particular acquaintance with 
the more common and destructive species. [Fig. 42/1 

The Striped Blister-beetle. — This spe- 
cies {Lytta vittata, Fabr., Fig. 42), is al- 
most exclusively a southern species, occur- 
ring in particular years very abundantly on 
the potato vine in Central and Southern 
Illinois, and iu Missouri, though, according 
to Dr. Harris, it is also occasionally found 
even in New England. In some specimens, ,;i •■ 
the broad outer black stripe on the wing-cases is di- 
(5) 




98 



POTATO PESTS. 



vided lengthways by a slender yellow line, so that in- 
stead of two there are three black stripes on each wing- 
case ; and in the same field all the intermediate grades 
between the two varieties may be met with ; thus prov- 
ing that the four-striped individuals do not form a distinct 
species, as was formerly supposed by the European ento- 
mologist, Fabricius, but are mere varieties of the same 
species to which the six-striped individuals appertain It 
will occasionally feed on the Tomato, and prefers most 
kinds of potato tops to those of the Peach Blow. 

The Ash-gray Blister-beetle. — This species (Lyt- 
ta* cinerea, Fabr., Fig 43, a, male), is the one commonly 
found in the more northerly parts of the Northern 

[Fig. 43.] 




Gray (a) and Black-rat (5) Blister-beet es, with the antennae enlarged. 

States, where it usually takes the place of the Striped 
species. It is of a uniform ash-gray color, but this color • 
is given it by the presence upon its body of minute ash- 
gray scales or short hairs, and whenever these are rubbed 

* In the male of this species, but not in the female, the first two joints of the 
antennas are greatly elongated and dilated ; which is also the case with the 
species next to be referred to. Fig. 43 d, represents the male antennse, above ; 
that of female below.) Hence, in splitting np the extensive and nnwieldly old 
genus, (Lytta), these and certain allied species have been very properly placed in 
a genus by themselves, (Macrobasis), while the Striped Blister-beetle and the 
Margined Blister-beetle, not possessing this peculiarity, are grouped together 
under a distinct genus, (Epicauta). Practical men, however, who do not desire 
to trouble their heads with these niceties, will find it most convenient to class 
them all together under the old genus, (Lytta) ; and this we hare accordingly 
done. 



OTHER INSECT FOES. 99 

off, which happens almost as readily as on the wings of a 
butterfly, the original black color of its hide appears. It 
attacks not only potato vines, but also honey locusts, and 
especially the English or Windsor bean, and I have found 
it quite abundant on the Early Snap bean. It is very in- 
jurious to lucerne, also attacks the foliage of the apple- 
tree, and likewise gnaws into the young fruit. 

The Black-rat Blister-beetle. — (Lytta murina, 
Lee, Fig. 43, 5), sometimes swarms upon the Potato, 
especially in the more northern of the States. 

The Black Blister-beetle. — This species, (Lytta 
atrata, Fabr.), is very similar in appearance to the Black- 
rat Blister-beetle ; the latter being distinguishable from 
it only by having four raised lines placed lengthwise upon 
each wing-case, and by the two first joints of the antenna 
being greatly dilated and lengthened in the males, as 
shown at Fig, 43, c. The Black Blister-beetle appears in 
August and September, and is very common on the flow- 
ers of the Golden-rod. It sometimes does much injury 
to a potato-field, especially when the development of the 
tubers is retarded ; but generally it appears too late in the 
season to prove very destructive. 

The Margined Blister-beetle. — This species (Lyt- 
ta marginata, Fabr., Fig. 44), may be at once [Fig. 44.] 
recognized by its general black color, and the 
narrow ash-gray edging to its wing-cases. It 
usually feeds on certain wild plants ; but I 
found it quite abundant on potatoes, both 
in Missouri and in Illinois. It is a very 
common species in the Mississippi Valley, 
prefers most varieties of potato to the Peach- 
Blow, and congregates and feeds on many 
other plants, and especially the Kentucky 
Coffee tree, (Gymnocladus Canadensis). It also attacks 
the egg-plant. 




100 POTATO PESTS. 

Of the several other species, more peculiar to the West, 
the White Blister-beetle, {Lytta albida, Say), and the 
Spotted Blister-beetle, (Lytta maculata, Say), have prov- 
ed very destructive to the Potato in Kansas. 

Kemedies.— The same remedies that apply to one apply 
to all of these Blister-beetles. They are rapid runners, and 
though abundantly able to fly, generally permit them- 
selves to be driven on foot rather than use their wings. 
This is especially the case when they have been surfeiting 
on potato vines, so that a method of destruction in very 
general use is to drive them into windrows of straw and 
kill them by burning. They may also be caught in large 
quantities by a hand net, and killed, though not so effec- 
tually as Doryphora, by the Paris green mixture. If our 
pharmaceutists could once be induced to employ these 
native Cantharides instead of importing the foreign spe- 
cies, (for our own are every bit as good), farmers would 
find a double profit in collecting and killing these pests. 
As all of them appear rather late in the season, I would 
recommend the planting of early potatoes, which will be 
more likely to escape their attacks ; also of the Peach 
Blow variety, the leaves of which seem to be more dis- 
tasteful to them than those of any other sort. 

the three-liked potato-beetle, (Lematrilineata,Q\iY.) 

[Ord. Coleoptera ; Fam. Chrysomelidje.] 

The larva of the Three-lined Leaf -beetle may be distin- 
guished from all other insects that prey upon the potato 
by its habit of covering itself with its own excrement. 
In Fig. 45, a, this larva is shown in profile, both full and 
half grown, covered with the soft greenish excrementitious 
matter which from time to time it discharges. Fig. 45, 
c, gives a somewhat magnified view of the pupa ; and 
Fig. 45, Z>, shows the last few joints of the abdomen 
of the larva, magnified, and viewed, not in pro- 



OTHER IXSECT FOES. 



101 




file, but from above. The vent of the larva, as will 
be seen from this last figure, is situated on the upper sur- 
face of the last joint, [Fig. 45.] 
so that its excrement 
naturally falls upon its 
back, and by successive 
discharges is pushed 
forward towards its 
head, until the whole 
upper surface of the 
insect is covered with 
it. In other insects, 

which do not indulge Three-lined Pot ato-beetle.— a, a, larva ;&, vent 
x1 . . t on anal joint ; c, pupa ; <*, eggs. 

in this singular prac- 
tice, the vent is situated either at the extreme tip of the 
abdomen, or on its lower surface. 

There are several other larvae, feeding upon other 
plants, which commonly wear cloaks of this strange 
material, among which may be mentioned one which is 
very common upon the Sumach, and which produces a 
jumping oval Leaf-beetle, (Blepharida rhois, Foerster), 
about a quarter of an inch long, and of yellow color, 
speckled with brick-red. The larva of certain Tortoise- 
beetles, (Cassididce), some of w r hich feed on the Morning 
Glory and the Sweet Potato vines, adopt the same prac- 
tice, but in their case there is a forked process at the tail 
which curves over their back and receives the requisite 
supply of excrement. 

Many authors have supposed that the object of the 
larva, in all these cases, is to protect its soft and tender 
body from the heat of the sun. This can scarcely be the 
correct explanation, because then they would throw away 
their parasols in cold cloudy weather, which they do not 
do. In all probability, the real aim of Nature, in the 
case of all these larvae, is to defend them from the attacks 
of birds and of cannibal and parasitic insects. 



102 



POTATO PESTS. 




Theee-lined 
Potato-beetle . 




There are two broods of this species every year. The 
first brood of larvae may be found on the potato vine 
toward the latter end of June, and the second in August. 
The first brood stayb underground about a fortnight be- 
fore it emerges in the perfect beetle state ; and the second 
brood stays there all winter, and only emerges at the be- 
ginning of the following June. The perfect beetle, (Fig. 
[rig. 46.] 46), is of a pale yellow color, with three 
black stripes on its back, and 
bears a general resemblance to the 
common Cucumber-beetle, (Dia- 
Irotica vittata, Fabr., Fig. 47). 
From this last species, however, it 
may readily be distinguished by 
the remarkable pinching in of the 
sides of its thorax, so a to make quite a lady-like waist there, 
or what naturalists call a " constriction. " It is also on the 
average a somewhat larger insect, and differs in other less 
obvious respects. As in the case of the Colorado Potato- 
beetle, the female, after coupling in the usual manner, 
lays her yellow eggs, (Fig. 45, c?),on the under surface of 
the leaves of the potato plant. The larvae hatching from 
these require about the same time to develop, and when 
full grown descend in the same manner into the ground, 
where they transform to pupae, (Fig. 45, c), within a 
small oval chamber, from which in time the perfect 
beetle comes forth. 

The Three-lined Leaf-beetle, in certain seasons, is a 
great pest in the Eastern States ; but it has never yet 
occurred in the Valley of the Mississippi in such numbers 
as to be particularly injurious. 
Remedies. — Same as for Doryphora. 




OTHER INSECT FOES. 103 

the cucumber flea-beetle, {Haltica cucumeris, Harris), 

[Ord. Coleoptera, Fam. Chrysomelidjs]. 

This minute Beetle, (Fig. 48), belongs to the Flea- 
beetles, {Halticidw), the same sub-group of the Leaf- 
beeves, (Phytqphaga), to which also appertains the noto- 
rious Steel-blue Flea-beetle {Haltica chalybea, Illiger), that 
is such a pest to the vineyardist. Like all the rest of the 
flea-beetles, it has its hind thighs greatly enlarged, which 
enables it to jump with much agility. It is not peculiar 
[Fig. 4s.] to the Potato, but infests a great variety of 
plants, including the cucumber, from which 
it derives its name. It operates by eating 
minute round holes into the substance of the 
cuctoibeb leaves which it attacks, but often not so as to 
flea-beetle, penetrate entirely through it. In South Illinois 
whole fields of potatoes may often be observed looking 
seared and yellow, and with their leaves riddled with the 
round holes mad\e by this insect. The larva feeds in- 
ternally upon the substance of the leaf, like that of the 
closely allied European Flea-beetle of the turnip, {Haltica 
nemorum, Linn.) ; and, from its near relationship to 
that insect, we may infer that it goes underground to 
assume the pupa state, that it passes through all its stages 
in about a month, and that there are two or three broods 
in the course of the same season. 
Eemedies. — Same as for Doryphora. 

the clubbed tortoise-beetle, {Deloyala clavata, Oliv.) 

[Ord. Coleoptera ; Fam. Cassidiile.] 

This species which has been well described by one of 
my correspondents as " a scale-like, terrapin-shaped hard 
insect, spread out like a flying squirrel," that adhered 
tenaciously to the leaves of his potato plants, sometimes 
injuriously affects the Potato. By referring to Fig. 49 
the reader will not be slow to learn why these beetles are 



104 



POTATO PESTS. 




Clubbed Tor- 
toise-beetle. 



called Tortoise-beetles, for the patches of dark opaque 
color which extend on the thin, projecting, [Fig. 49.3 
semi-transparent shell of that species, re- 
mind one very forcibly of the paws of a 
mud-turtle. The true legs however, which, 
as in all other insects, are six in number, 
and which in this species are so short that 
they scarcely reach beyond the thin shield- 
like crust that extends from the body, may 
readily be seen when the insect is turned upside down. 
This species has never been numerous enough to be con- 
sidered much of a pest. 

There are a few other species affecting the Potato, 
especially a small Dipterous worm that mines and blotches 
the first leaves of the young plants ; but they are of 
minor importance, and the publishers admonish me that 
this little work has already grown to larger proportions 
than at first contemplated. 



INDEX 



Alarm about Doryphora Abroad. . . . 76 
American Insects and Weeds accli- 
mated in Europe 81 

Area Invaded by the Colorado Po- 
tato-beetle 24 

Anna spinosa. 47 

11 cynica 49 

Arsenious acid for Doryphora 60 

Ash-gray Blister-beetle 40, 93 

Ashes for Doryphora 67 

Asilus-fly 53 

Asparagus-beetle 79 

Atlantic reached by Doryphora in 
1S74 13 

B 

Baridim trinotatus 92 

Benson Machine for killing Dory- 
phora 57 

Bichromate of Potash for Doryphora 66 

Black-bellied Lebia 45 

" -rat Blister-beetle 99 

" Blister-beetle 99 

Blister-beetles. 90 

" " Remedies for 100 

Blister-beetle, Striped 46, 97 

11 " Ash-gray 46, 9S 

" " Black-rat 99 

" Black 99 

" " Margined 99 

" " White 100 

" " Spotted 100 

Blue Stone for Doryphora. 66 

Bowen, II., Instrument for catching 

Doryphora 59 

Bogus Experiments 75 

" Colorado Potato-beetle 85 

Bordered Soldier-bug 50 

Brachinus Kansanus 45 



Bvfo Americanus - 36 

Bug— Restriction of the term 11 

C 

Calosoma calidum 44 

Carbolate of Lime for Doryphora, . . 66 
Causes which limit the Spread of 

Doryphora 25 

Clubbed Tortoise-beetle 103 

" " " Remedies for,104 

Cobalt for Doryphora 60 

Coccinella %-notata 40 

Colorado Potato-beetle 11 

Air poisoned by large numbers 

washed up on sea shore 17 

Alarm about It Abroad 70 

Area invaded by It 21 

Bogus Experiments on 75 

" Colorado Potato-beetle. .. 85 
Causes which limit Its Spread.. 25 
Encouragement of Its Natural 

Enemies 54 

First recorded as destructive in 

1859 12 

Found in Europe 79 

How it traveled 21 

IIow it affected the Price of Po- 
tatoes 20 

Its Past History 11 

It reaches the Atlantic in 1874. . 14 
It swarms on the coast of the 

Atlantic , 16 

Its native Home 17 

Its migratory Propensity 23 

It spreads, but does not travel 
in the sense of leaving one 

District for Another 23 

Its natural History 28 

Its possible Acclimatation in 

Europe 82 

Its Food Plants . , 30 

Its poisonous qualities... 29 



106 



INDEX. 



Its natural Enemies 34 

Machines for collecting It 57, 58, 59 
Mechanical Means of Destruc- 
tion 55 

Modification It has undergone. . 27 

Nomenclature 83 

Paris Green for 61 

Pincers for Killing 56 

Poisonous Applications for 60 

Preventive Measures 54 

Rate at which It traveled 21 

Remedies 54 

Southern Columns progress 
more slowly east than north- 
ern 14 

The Beetle eats as well as the 

Larva 33 

The Use of Paris Green 69 

Train impeded by excessive 

Numbers 17 

Where It invaded Canada. 13 

Why it sometimes becomes 

scarce 34 

Convergent Lady-bird 41 

Coreus tristis 48 

Creighton, Saml.— Machine for Col- 
lecting Doryphora 58 

Crioceris asparagi 79 

Cucumber-beetle 102 

" Flea-beetle 102 

" » Remedies for.. 103 

D 

Deloyala clavata 103 

Dlabrotica vittata 102 

Doryphora 10-lineata 10, 11 

44 undecimlineata 20 

" melanothorax 20 

11 juncta 85 

Doryphora Tachina-parasite 52 

Dotted-legged Plant-bug 51 

E 

Elm-leaf Beetle 79 

Elongate Ground-beetle 44 

Epilachna borealis 41 

EuropeanPlants and Animals spread 

with Civilization 9 

Euschistus puncfipes 49, 51 

Evolution— Evidences of 10 



F 

Fiery Ground-beetle 44 

Fifteen-spotted Ladybird 41, 42 

Food-plants of Colorado Potato- 
beetle 30 

G 

Galeruca calmariensis 79 

Goerius olens 45 

Gortyna nitela 90 

Grand-daddy Long-legs 30 

Grand-father Gray-beards 36 

Gray's Improved Sprinkler 63 

Great Lebia 44 

Ground-beetles 43, 44 

Guiraca ludovitiana 35 

H 

Haltica cucumeris 102 

Haij)actor cinctus 50 

Harpalus caliginosus 44 

Harvest-men 36 

Hellebore for Doryphora C6 

Hippodamia metadata 40 

" convergens 41 

44 glacialis 41 

44 \Z-panctata 40 

How the Colorado Potato-beetle 

traveled — 21 

How the Colorado Potato-beetle 
affected the Price of Potatoes.. 26 

I 

Icy Ladybird 41 

Indigenous species— Extermination 

of 9 

Indigenous species— Spread of 10 

Introduction 9 

K 

Kansas Bombardier-beetle 45 

Kedzie, Prof.R. C, Experiments by 71 

L 

Ladybird, The Spotted 40 

TheVspotted • • 40 

Thel3-spotted 40 

The Convergent 41 

The Icy 41 

The 15-spotted... 41, 42 






IXDEX. 



107 



Ladybirds feed on Doryphora. 40 

Large Green Plant-bug 52 

Lebia grandls 44 

" atriventris 45 

Lema trilineata 100 

Lime for Doryphora G7 

Lydella doryphom 52 

Lytta vittata 97 

** cinerea 98 

M murina 99 

" atrata 99 

" marginata 99 

" albida 100 

" metadata 100 

M 

Machines for collecting Doryphora. 58 

Many-banded Robber 50 

Margined Blister-beetle 99 

McMurtrie, Prof. — Experiments by. 73 
Mechanical Means of Destroying 

Doryphora 55 

Migratory Propensity of Doryphora 23 

Mite Parasite of Doryphora 38 

Modification which Doryphora has 

undergone 27 

Murky Ground-beetle 44 

Mysia 15-punctata 41 

N 

Native Ilome of Colorado Potato- 
beetle 17 

Natural History of Colorado Potato- 
beetles 27 

Natural Enemies of Doryphora 34 

Nezara hilaris. . . 52 

Nine-spotted Ladybird 40 

O 

Oil-beetle 97 

Other Insect Foes of the Potato 89 



Paris Green for Doryphora 62 

" How to apply.. .62, 63, 64 

11 " Dust Box 62 

" " The Use of 69 

" " Its Influence on Plants. 70 

" " Past Experience with.. 69 

" M Its Influence on the Soil 71 



Paris Green, Its Influence on Man 
indirectly through the Soil or 

through the Plant 74 

Past History of Colorado Potato- 

beetle 11 

Pasimachus elongatus 44 

Patent Poisons for Doryphora 68 

Peck's Spray Machine 65 

P&rillus circumcinctus 51 

Phalangium dorsatum £6 

Philonthus apicalis 46 

Pieris rapai 10, 79 

Pincers for Potato-beetle 56 

Plants fed on by the Colorado Pota- 
to-beetle 30,31, 32 

Podisus cynicus 49 

Poisonous qualities of Colorado Po- 
tato-beetle 29 

Poisonous Applications for Dory- 
phora 60 

Potato, Its value 9 

" Stalk-weevil 92 

k4 or Tomato worm 93 

Potatoes— How Doryphora affected 

the Price of 26 

Potatoes— Varieties preferred by 

Doryphora 33 

Polistes rubiginosas 36 

Prairie Farmer— Natural History of 

Doryphora first published in 12 

Protocanthus Milberti 53 

Q 

Quedius molochinus 46 

R 

Rape Butterfly 10, 79 

Rapacious Soldier-bug 50 

Rate at which Doryphora traveled. . . 21 

Reduvius raptatorws 50 

Remedies against Doryphora. . . ^54, 67 

" " Blister-beetles 100 

" " Potato Worm 95 

" " Stalk weevil 92 

" " Stalk-borer 91 

" »• Three-lined Potato- 
beetle 102 

" " Cucumber Flea-bee- 
tle 103 

" " Clubbed Tortoise- 
beetle 104 



108 



INDEX. 



Ring-banded Soldier-bug 51 

Rocky Mountains— Injury of Dory- 
phora in 15 

Rose-breasted Grosbeak 35 

Rove-beetles 45 

Rust-red Social wasp 30 

S 

Sphinx 5-maculata 93 

Spined Soldier-bug 47 

Spotted Blister-beetle . 100 

Squash-bug 48 

Squires, Geo. — Machine for killing 

Doryphora 58 

Stalk-borer 90 

Stiretrus fimbriatus 50 

Striped Blister-beetle. . . . , 97 

Sulphate of Copper for Doryphora. . 66 
Sun-killing of Doryphora 57 



T 

Tetracha Virginica 44 

Thomas, Cyrus— Opinion as to na- 
tive Home of Doryphora 16 

Thirteen-spotted Ladybird 40 

Three-lined Potato-beetle 100 

" " " Remedies for 102 
Tiger-beetles 43 

U 

Uropoda vegetans 38 

" Ame?icana 37 

V 

Virginia Tiger-beetle 44 

W 

Walsh, B. D. — Predictions regard- 
ing progress of Doryphora 12 

White Blister-beetle 100 



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